Neph
by Guerrilla Warfare
Summary: Imagine a world where Devils and Angels exist. Now imagine a world where both of those creatures want you dead. Now, imagine having to deal with all that, and a talking cat that wants to rip your face off. Horrible, I know. Here's how it goes down... Warning: First work! Definitely Bellice. Now rated T after an epiphany. Dark content, and the rare swear word. AU, OOC, & OC's
1. Ch 1: A Dime Is A Dollar, Right?

**A/R (Author's ramblings):**

**Hello, all, and welcome to the magical land of the _sane _part of my brain! Magical, is it not? Lucky Charms could be its twin.**

**Let me warn you straight away, that I am a COMPLETE amateur when it comes to writing. I know better how to read, which shouldn't come as a surprise, really. I digress.**

**My story may be a little rushed, or it may be a little slow(but let's be honest, it's rushed, isn't it? Ahhhh, I'm such a noob!), so feel free to criticize me to the best of your _constructive_ ability when you review. I am walk this lonely road, so there may be many mistakes, but hopefully not, because I am a grammar and spelling nerd. Granted, I'm a complete noob in both, but I do like to do my best(I said "do" twice. Heh. Do do).**

**Please read, review, love, hate, dislike, like, get turned into a pit viper, get turned back, be horribly traumatized about your times as a pit viper, be inducted into a psychiatric ward, get out, feeling like a free man only to be run over by a train, somehow live, and decide to make me a sandwich.**

**Disclaimer: *looks into wallet* My wallet says I don't own anything but a moth.**

***updated**

**Chapter one. A Dime Is A Dollar, Right?**

How would you react if you woke up one day and a cat was sitting on your face? What if it wasn't even your cat? Would you pick the thing up and toss it across your room, cursing because it peed on your face just to wake you up? Or would you sit up, grab it, and take it to your open window that you could have sworn you closed the night before?

I did none of those things. I did none of those things because the cat did something that no one could have predicted it would do. The cat spoke.

"Hey, wake up."

I opened my eyes to a quite purring voice.

"What?" I croaked, voice dry from falling to sleep right after a late night ironman game of soccer with no water breaks. I couldn't even remember getting into bed, let alone changing into my pajamas. "Who's there?"

"Wake up. Feed me," the voice purred again. It was then that I realized I had a cat on my head and my face was mysteriously wet.

"Ahhhhh!" I shot up into a sitting position and allowed my brain to catch up with the situation. "Ewwww! That is so gross!" I picked up my blanket and scrubbed furiously at my face, stopping only when I heard a low hiss.

"Hey! Watch what you're doing, Neph!" I looked around, only finding the treacherous cat that lived in the woods behind my house that my dad insisted on feeding every morning. Could I be dreaming?

"Hello?" I said, deciding to test the waters and see if the ghost that was haunting my room wanted to murder me or not. "Are you going to kill me?"

"Of course not! How else would I get my breakfast?" This time, my attention was directed towards the cat sitting atop the computer monitor on my desk. I stared. "What? Is there something on my face?"

My mouth opened wide in shock. _That's not possible. Cats don't speak. That's impossible. Animals can't speak. Especially little mangy furballs that like to pee on people's faces. That's impossible._

"You've said that already, Neph." Apparently I was speaking out loud. _Why must my mouth go rogue on me when all I want to do is go back to sleep and pretend this never happened?_ "Now, are you going to feed me or not?"

"Stop!" I threw my blanket over my head, trying to drown out the sound of the cat's voice- which was sounding less and less like purring by the second. _Could it be growing angry with me?_

"Stop what?" The cat said, tone slightly annoyed. _Do cats even have tones?_

"Stop… That! That… Speaking thing you're doing! How are you even speaking? Cats don't speak! Why am I even speaking back?" I was rambling. Let me take the time right now to tell you that I'm not very proud of the way I handle stress.

"What? I've always spoken!" The cat hissed indignantly. Apparently, I hurt its feelings. _Poor thing. Not._ "I've always spoken! This is just the first time you've bothered to listen." The cat started to lick its paws. "I've been very patient with you, Neph. Others in my place would have given up years ago."

"Wait, given up on what?" I asked. I was sure I was going crazy. I was actually entering into a _conversation _with the cat.

"You, Neph. You took so long. Makes me wonder who your father was," the cat said, rolling its little cat eyes.

If I'm gonna be speaking to a cat, I'm going to have to get over the fact that it's a cat. You know, for my own sanity.

"Wait, you know of my father? And why are you calling me 'Neph'? That's not my name!"

"No, Neph, I didn't. That's why I just said I was wondering _who_ your father was. And they told me you guys were smart." The cat jumped off my monitor and on to the back of my swivel chair, deftly dodging the pillow I threw at it. _Makes me appreciate the term "cat like reflexes" better._ "Watch where you place things, Neph. You might end up hurting someone."

"Stop calling me 'Neph'! My name is Bella!" I said, scowling. The pillow I threw crashed into my desk, knocking everything on it to the floor. _Now I'm going to have to clean it all up._

"No, it isn't your name, is it?" The cat asked, jumping off of my chair and landing gracefully on my dresser. "But, it is what you are."

I grumbled under my breath. _Stupid cat doesn't even know how to speak._ It annoys me to no end when someone starts a sentence with "but". Call it a pet peeve of mine. I shook my head and sighed.

"What do you mean, 'what I am'?" I asked, choosing to ignore the cat's grammar. It would be foolish to argue with an animal of all things. _A baby, maybe. An animal? Now that's too much._

"I mean you are what you are, Neph. Now feed me." The cat leapt off my dresser and strolled over to my door. It sprang for the handle, somehow managing to open it. "Come on."

I decided to follow the thing. _Maybe if I feed it, it will decide to stop talking the way an old man on the top of a mountain is supposed to. That, or if once I start doing something normal, I'll wake up and realize I had only been sleep walking. Yeah, let's go with that._

Once I got downstairs, my legs were burning, no doubt trying to teach me a lesson for making them work so soon after last night (I swear, my muscles hate me), I looked around, not seeing the cat. _Maybe it decided I wasn't what it was looking for and scooted off to a little cat bar to tell all its little cat buddies about the foolish human who actually believed a cat was talking to her_.

"You coming?" The cat asked, sticking his head out around the corner to the kitchen. _Yeah, I thought not._

"Yeah, yeah… Hold your horses, furball," I said, hanging my head in disappointment. I'd rather have all of the cat community laughing at me than actually face the fact that this cat was actually speaking.

The cat hissed and disappeared back behind the corner. Just before I followed it, I heard my dad yell from upstairs.

"Bells?" He shouted, not noticing that I was just a few feet off from the bottom of the stairwell and he was just at the top. "Oh, there you are."

"Hi, Daddy," I said, smiling. Yeah, I call him 'daddy', so what? I loved my pops. Yeah, he may just be my adopted father, but I loved him the same. He'd been the only one to actually understand when my mother passed away, trying, and failing, to give me a little sister. He comforted me, and I comforted him back. Together, we formed an inseparable bond that nothing could rival. _Not even concrete glue._

"Were you making mewling noises?" He asked, walking with me into the kitchen and getting out the cat food for the interloper sitting on the table. "'Cause I coulda sworn I heard you scream, and then two cats meowing at each other.

"No, I wasn't," I said, giving him a confused look. "And all I remember is this devil spawn climbing on my face and…" I paused, my face growing pale from the blood draining into my feet. "EW!" I shouted and raced upstairs and to the shower, faster than any human in the world. I would have been freaked if I wasn't so grossed out by the pee on my face. I'd also need to clean my blanket. As I was running away, I could have sworn I heard my dad chuckle and ask the cat if it'd done it again, to which it replied that it had, and that I'd deserved it.

I'd get that cat, one day.

When I was finished, I walked out of my bathroom and straight to my dresser which housed my usual: sport shorts and a t-shirt. I don't even know _why _I have a closet if all I do is stack my t-shirts on top of my dresser instead of hanging them up.

I got dressed and walked downstairs, barefoot, _the shoes of champions_, and went back into the kitchen looking for my dad. The whole way down the stairwell I was marveling at how I was no longer sore. I was always the envy of my team because of how fast I recovered from exertion. The only other person who did that that they knew of was the goal keeper who was on their team the year before me. She was a short girl, although they told me she was incredibly fast and could jump amazingly high.

"Daddy?" I queried, peeking around the corner, into the kitchen. "Are you cooking, yet?"

"No, Bells." He chuckled, drinking his coffee. "I figured I'd let you decide what you wanted first. You know, before you have to leave the room so I can cook."

It may be a little known fact, but bad luck follows me everywhere. _Especially in those places where dangerous things reside._ Take the kitchen, for example: knives, microwave, forks, spoons, stoves, giant fridge/freezer combo, lots of things to kill someone. Luckily for me, everything in there has taken up the contract someone has put out for my head. That was sarcasm. When people turn the stove on, it explodes. When someone knocks the fridge, it falls at me (Yes, AT me. It purposely falls so it will hit me). When someone uses a knife, fork, spoon, or spork, it flies through the air-straight at my face. The only reason I'm still alive is my amazing physical prowess.

"Oh, I'll just take some cereal, milk, and some fruit." I walked over to the counter and got a plastic spoon from the drawer. Yes, we use plastic utensils. It might be gross, but it's _much_ safer than metal.

"Here you go," he said, setting the things I asked for in front of me on the table as I sat down in my chair. "On the house."

"Why, however can you be so kind?" I asked, holding a hand to my heart and pretending to wipe a tear from my eye.

My dad chuckled and left the room, probably to go and retrieve the paper from the front porch.

"What a kind man, him." I stiffened in my seat. I had forgotten about that little problem. "Too bad he isn't your _real _father. I would have preferred he were. Maybe he could have sired someone with a little more… _wit_."

"Would you quit it?" I hissed out in a whisper, not wanting my dad to overhear me talking to a cat. He'd send me to the nut house for sure this time. Once, when I was little, I was trading songs with a bird in my backyard. Other birds heard and came to listen and participate, many landing on me or around me. When my father walked outside, saw me, and asked what I was doing, to which I replied that I was talking and singing with the birds. He got this weird look on his face and shooed the birds away. I never did that again. I had always dismissed that memory as childhood imagination (I mean, birds talking? Ridiculous!), but I guess it was real.

"What?" The cat asked, looking affronted. "I am doing no wrong. I am simply speaking to you and your father like I normally do. Your father is the one who is doing wrong by ignoring me."

"Wait, what?" I asked, stopping in the middle of pouring myself some cereal. "What do you mean 'like I normally do'? You mean you talk to us all the time?" The cat sighed, shaking its head.

"I've only been telling you that for the past _hour_, Neph. Is it not time you learn?"

"Learn what?" I asked, choosing not to be offended by the cat's _clear_ insult to my intelligence. The cat sighed again.

"Have you not been wondering why you can suddenly understand what I am saying?" The cat spoke as if it were teaching a child something. I already know not to stick my fingers in outlets, thank you.

"Of _course_ I have, stupid cat. I've been asking you _all_ day!" I said, not a little annoyed.

"The reason, Neph, is not because_ I_ have suddenly learned to speak _your _language, but because _you_ have suddenly learned to speak _mine_."

I dropped the spoon I had been raising to my mouth, spilling milk all over my nice, clean, comfortable shorts. I stood up, cursing right when my dad burst into the kitchen.

"Bells! I heard them again! I swear, there's another cat in this- what happened?" He asked, finally realizing I had cereal bits on my shorts, and milk on the floor. "Did you drop your food again?"

"Yes, daddy, I dropped my food," I said, smiling sweetly. If what the cat said was indeed true, then the other cat my dad was talking about _had_ to have been me. That means I've been meowing this whole time without even knowing it. If anyone were to find that out, they'd most _definitely_ send me to the crazy house. "Let me clean this up real quick and go change; then I'll be out of your hair."

"Okay, Bells. I gotta go to work, soon, anyway," he said, sipping his coffee. I looked at the clock on the wall above the entrance and saw that it was only 7 o'clock. Ouch, that's early for a Saturday.

My dad works as owner and manager of his own window washing company that goes around the whole state. Considering how icy it gets up here in the winter and how the birds all migrate up here in the summer, he has a lot of work year round. He's even been given a job to do some of those large buildings that are made entirely out of glass in the city a few hours away.

I watched my dad go upstairs to change into his uniform for work and got on cleaning the milk off the floor. When I was finished, I raced up stairs, trying to get to my room before the cat. Upon reaching the doorway, I jumped through and slammed the door shut. I locked it, and danced around in victory, finally able to escape from that cat.

"What are you doing?" The voice sounded from behind me, sounding bored, but slightly amused at the same time. Does that make sense?

"Impossible!" I whirled around. The cat was right there, sitting on my window sill. "You were downstairs a few seconds ago! You didn't even move when I left!"

"You should be careful how you use the word 'Impossible', Neph." The cat said, doing a weird little cat chuckle thing. "It's not able to be thrown around as much as it used to be."

"What do you mean?" I asked, forgetting for a while my shorts, and just staring at the cat in curiosity. _Hmm… I wonder, if I stare in curiosity enough, will it kill the cat? Worth a try._

"Everything that you've known until now, will change," the cat said, adopting a serious tone to its voice. "Soon, an envoy will come after you to either turn you, or kill you."

"What would they wanna kill me for?" I asked, finally remembering my shorts and going about changing them. "I'm not that hated, am I?" I was going for a joke, but apparently I hit the nail on the head.

"Actually, you are," the cat said, tone grave. "Everyone hates you. You are the only one that can save and be saved and they envy you to the point of hatred for your power." The cat cocked its head, seemingly thinking about something. "Well, I guess there _could_ be more of you, but I doubt it. Angels don't make it a habit to go around courting humans-"

"WAIT!" I shouted, interrupting the cat. "What did you say? Angels? Angels don't exist!" The cat leveled a glare at me and I flinched. _Man, cats can throw a mean glare. I think it's the weird pupils._

"Of course they do!" It hissed, standing up from its sitting position, its fur rising on its back. "How do you think you came to _be_ in this world! Not because two humans who didn't want a child had one by mistake, but because of an Angel! An Angel fell in love with a human female and impregnated her to create you! You and all your kind!"

"What…" I said, voice shaky, frightened at what the cat had just revealed. "You mean to say… That I'm not… Human?" The last word came out in a squeak. _This is impossible. This can't be happening. I'm human… Aren't I?_

"That is not what I _mean_ to say! That is what I'm _saying_!" The cat huffed, sitting back down.

"No, that's im-"

"If you are about to say that word, I suggest you stop." The cat said, eyes narrowing, its glare intensifying. "I don't like that word anymore."

"Then I'm… Not human." I whispered to myself, plopping down in my swivel chair. "Then…" I looked up at the cat. "What am I?"

"You?" The cat said, its glare turning into a soft, sympathetic gaze. "You are Nephalem. Child of the Angels, cursed to wander this world, saving those who are undeserving."

"Wander?" I sat up straight in my chair. _Now I have to leave?_ "What do you mean 'wander'?"

"You must become a nomad and go around saving people." The cat started to clean itself, seemingly uncaring about the state of my mental trauma. "Of course, you could do it from one place, there are more than enough undeserving souls in one city, but it is dangerous to do so."

"Why is it dangerous?" I asked, putting my head in my hands and slumping forward in my chair. "Let me guess. Some kind of evil being is going to try and suck out my soul and use my body as a rug." I looked up at the cat, who had a surprised expression on his face. _Do cats _have_ expressions_? "Am I right?"

"Wow, that was a good guess." The cat raised its little cat eyebrows at me. "And here I thought you were _completely_ brainless."

"Well, I do pride myself in having at least _half_ my brain," I said, a little proud of myself. "That's not the point, though."

"Ah, yes. As I said before, you will indeed be in danger if you stay in one place too long. As of this morning, when you woke up, demons have been able to sense you from around the globe and they will try literally _anything_ to get to you."

"What will they do if they get me?" I asked, my voice again a whisper, dreading the answer.

"I don't know. This is my first assignment, so I don't know much about what a demon does to a Nephalem. I would assume he would either try to turn you, or eliminate you."

"What do you mean by 'turn me'?"

"Well, you know how Demons came into existence in the first place?" The cat looked at me, obviously expecting an answer I didn't have. It sighed. "I thought not. To make it short, Lucifer, God's right hand man, didn't really like how things were being dealt with up in Heaven so he decided to revolt and take over. Needless to say, he lost. There weren't always Angels and Demons, and when God banished Lucifer down to Hell, he and his followers transformed, making demons. They learned to slip through cracks and hide in corners and eventually made it out of Hell and into the Human realm-Earth.

"Not _all_ of the Angels that revolted with Lucifer were unrepentant, though, and most wanted to go back to Heaven. God wouldn't allow them, though, for some reason or another, and the Fallen Angels, or just the _Fallen_, took it upon themselves to watch over humanity and keep it safe from Demons." The cat finished cleaning itself and yawned. "Some Fallen fell in love with Humans and badda bing, you have the Nephalem."

"You know," I said, "that wasn't very short." The cat hissed and clawed the air, most likely pretending to scratch my face off like it had done many times before. I chuckled. _I guess I'm getting used to this._ "So what part do you play in all this? You mentioned an assignment?"

"Hmph." The cat rolled into a ball upon the window sill, and basked in the sun. "I am no ordinary cat. The Fallen had realized that their children were being targeted because of their ability to save souls and the favor they held with the Father, so they devised a plan to give them guides to help them survive in a world where everyone wants their head."

"How'd they do that?" I asked, interrupting the cat. I had yet to gain anything from its drawn out explanation and was already getting bored. I wanted the straight facts.

"I was _getting _to that!" The cat hissed, fur rising as it lifted its head to glare at me. "Anyway, they went around looking for vessels. Since animals don't have souls, they were perfect. The Fallen, however, had not the heart to actually harm the animals in any way, since they were so pure, so they looked for ones who were on the brink of death before saving their lives while simultaneously filling them with knowledge beyond that of a Human-and a little bit of their Angel spirits."

"So you're an Angel-cat?" I asked, a little impressed.

"If you want to put a name to it, I guess so. I prefer the term Spiritus Dux." The cat eyed me. "That's Latin, if you were wondering." I _was_ wondering, actually.

"Why do I know what that means if it was Latin?" I asked, knowing that "Spiritus Dux" meant "Spirit Guide", but not knowing whether to feel afraid of this new-found ability to speak Latin (and cat) or to be awed by my awesomeness.

"Your ability to understand goes far beyond just cat, Neph. You will find in time that you can speak _any_ language known to man, animal, plant, or any other language you will find." The cat sounded rather smug. _Obviously because he knows so much and I so little. It's not my fault I was only able to understand it now!_ "Now, before we can go any further, we must bond."

"Wait, what?" I asked, standing up and thwarting the cat's attempt at jumping across the room and onto my shoulder. _Man, that thing can jump. _"What do you mean 'bond'? You're not gonna have to suck my blood or bite me or anything are you?"

"Don't be foolish, Neph," the cat said from atop my shoulders, rolling its eyes. I jumped when I heard it right behind my ear and it fell with a high pitched cat screech. _Hadn't the thing just been on the floor in front of me?_ It hissed at me before speaking again. "We just have to meld our souls. I will not be able to properly guide you if I do not know what state you are in spiritually."

"Will it hurt?" I asked, still breathing hard from my scare. I took slow, calming breaths. _No need to drown the thing that's supposed to be keeping me alive. _The cat looked at me like I was an idiot. _What'd I do?_

"That's really what you're worried about? You have no questions about what it would do to you, or even _how_ it's supposed to happen?" The cat shook its head and I marveled at how human a gesture like that was. "You have no self preservation, do you?"

"Hey!" I shouted, clearly making it noted that I was insulted. "I have self preservation! How do you think I'm even alive with all the inanimate objects out for my head?"

"Mm. You do seem to have a number of imps after you," it mused. Before I could ask what an imp was, it spoke again. "Anyway, let's get this over with." It jumped on my chest, causing me to fall back, missing my chair and landing straight into the mess of desk-objects on my floor, bruising my butt. I swear it does this on purpose. The cat quickly placed the crown of its head against the dip in my collar bone and a flash ensued. It was weird. I could feel something invading my body, but… It wasn't "invading" per se, more like it was tromping on my lawn, yelling for me to let it in.

"Open yourself, Neph," the cat murmured, pushing harder into my collar bone and seemingly going further into me.

I tried to do as it said, because this feeling was really weird, and my butt was starting to hurt from landing on my first place trophy and pencil sharpener. Let me tell you, it's not a good combination.

"Concentrate, Neph."

I closed my eyes and envisioned myself opening a door, and the cat happily trotting in. It was right then, as the cat crossed the threshold that I had this amazing feeling of being two people. Or… It was more like there were two people inside of me, and at the same time, I was inside of someone else (my guess was it was the cat) along with that person.

"There we go, now slowly pull away, but remember this feeling. You can call on me any time now. Just open yourself to me." The cat slowly pulled away, and I slowly closed the door.

I opened my eyes and blinked. Everything looked so clear. I could literally _see_ the particles of dust floating in the air, and they _weren't_ highlighted by the light. I could also hear… Well, _everything_. I could hear the blood pumping through the cat's and my veins, I could hear its soft, steady breathing. Heck, I could hear the breathing of the neighbor three doors down. I bet, if I concentrated hard enough, I could probably hear my dad washing windows in the city hours away.

"How do you feel?" the cat asked, not moving from my chest, which was kind of annoying, considering where he was standing. As soon as he said that, I noticed the raging pain in my buttocks where the trophy and pencil sharpener were jabbing into my poor flesh. I wouldn't have been surprised if I were bleeding, but I could tell I wasn't.

"Like I've been sitting on trophies and pencil sharpeners for _hours_," I groaned, throwing the cat off of me and standing up. I tentatively put my hands on my butt cheeks, attempting to soothe the pain even the tiniest bit. It didn't work. _I don't even know _why _people did this in the first place. It never works._

"Hmm. It's only been a minute and a half. You'd think your pain tolerance would have been upped as well, but it seems you've just gotten a boost to your senses. Don't worry, you'll get used to it. Probably."

I cursed under my breath. _Probably? Doesn't this cat know what it's talking about?_ That's when I had a revelation. If I'm going to be living with the cat for the rest of my existence (I couldn't call running for my life a _life_), then I should know what to call it.

"Um… Excuse me… Cat?" I said, not knowing how to address the thing out loud.

"Yes, _Neph_?" It asked, stressing the word 'Neph'. _I guess it doesn't like being called, 'cat'_.

"Umm… Do you… Happen to have… I dunno, a name?" I asked, feeling a lot awkward. I rubbed my arm and blushed. _Should this be so hard? _"I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

The cat laughed at me again. _I swear, the thing hates me_.

"No, I don't have a name." It crawled to my feet and started rubbing itself across my ankles, purring. "Seeing as you are now my master, you can name me if you wish."

I thought about that. _What do I want to name this evil devil spawn fur ball of a cat that likes to pee on my face? _After thinking for a few minutes, I suddenly had an idea. I know just how to get back at the stupid thing.

"Fine, then as of now, your name is… Meatball." Before I could even look down at Meatball in triumph, it jumped on my face and started eating me. It was then I realized it was a "she". Guess I should get my dad to take me to go get tags for the cat, and shots for myself.

**A/R:**

**Yeah... Tell me if I should continue this, and who I should put as who. I only have places for Bella, Alice, and Charlie right now, and I know not of where I should put any one else. Be warned, I'm not sure if this will have Bellice in it or not, but Alice will most CERTAINLY be in it. I love her too much to forget her.**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	2. Ch 2: I Made Spoons Out Of Pudding Lids

**A/R: Hey, dudes and dudettes! How's it hangin'? No, wait, I don't wanna know.**

**Here's the next chapter in my story. Tell me how you like it!**

**In this one, we have two more new characters joining our troupe. See if you can guess who they are? What role do they play? All that stuff. See ya at the bottom!**

**Disclaimer: If I owned this, I could afford people to make me sammiches. Alas, I do, and can, not.**

**Chapter Two: I Made Spoons Out Of Pudding Lids.**

"I still resent you for this, you know." Meatball, or M.B. as she insists I call her, pawed at her collar in the seat behind me.

I rolled my eyes. _Of course she would. It was revenge. No one forgives revenge. It's unheard of. _ She hissed at me.

"Aren't you going to even speak to me?" I ignored her. Of course I wouldn't, seeing as my dad was in the driver's seat next to me. "Fine, be that way," Meatball huffed. "And I was going to teach you all these new tricks you can do now that you've fully awakened." I looked back and glared at her, earning myself a look from my father.

"Anything wrong, Bells?" He asked, trying to look at me and the road at the same time. It was quite goofy looking, if I do say so myself.

"Ah, no, nothing's wrong, Daddy." I turned back to face front. I wasn't going to let the stupid cat win.

"And they were so cool, too." Meatball sighed and licked her paw.

Nope.

"You could do so many neat new things…"

Not gonna break me.

"You could even fly…"

"Wait, what?" I turned back to face Meatball so fast I startled my dad and he had to swerve hard not to crash into an oncoming bus. _Huh. I didn't know we had busses in Forks. I mean, other than school busses_.

"What was that, Bells!" He yelled, quite flustered. I guess I had still spoken in English, thank the Lord. _Wait, would he start speaking back to me, now? _

"Sorry, Daddy. I thought I… Saw… M.B. peeing on the seat." Meatball glared at me. Revenge sure is sweet.

"What!" My dad yelled and turned back, nearly drifting into the other lane again. Luckily, I looked over in time to pull the steering wheel back so we wouldn't have another near death experience. "That furball better not have peed in my baby!" Okay, so my dad has a _little_ obsession with his car. I know nothing about vehicles of any sort, but he says he's not to blame, and anyone else would have, too, if they were in his place. He says that if he's with his car, "Well, Bella, I just wont need human interaction anymore." Yeah, can you say, "crazy old man"? 'Cause, I sure can.

"Don't worry, I was seeing things," I said, deciding not to put Meatball in _too_ much trouble. If I torture her too much, then she might just want to get me back some day.

"You got that right, Nephling." I rolled my eyes. M.B. had taken to calling me a Nephling after making a joke about how I was still a hatchling compared to how long other Nephalem have lived. I had been asking if I'd become some super powered immortal when the topic came up. Apparently I had basically become immortal, but I could be killed by hellfire, the weapon of choice for devils and demons, or holyflame, the weapon of choice of the Heavenly Bodies (which are basically anything that is holy. I thought it was just the moon and sun and stuff, but apparently I was just being "ignorant").

We were on our way home from the adoption center, where we officially made Meatball my pet. Seeing as my eighteenth birthday was two months ago, she was put under my name. That way I could move out and not have to deal with any pesky paperwork or legal problems should I get blamed for animal cruelty (which I most certainly might).

We stopped at the local diner that was just across from the police station for lunch, as we always did on Sundays. My dad said it was because he liked the pie, but I knew it was because he'd always wanted to be a police officer, but since he's not good at taking tests, he never got accepted to the academy, and he liked to watch the officers go about their day.

"Leave M.B. in the car, Bells," My dad said, putting the car in park after he got a spot. "If that thing pees in my car, so help me, God, I might just kill it." He continued after we got out and started heading towards the diner's entrance.

"Ah, don't worry, Daddy. I'm sure she knows not to." I looked away from his eyes. Not telling him about me being a super awesome Angel-kid made me feel like I was lying to him, and I never liked lying to him. Well, to anybody, really, but especially not my dad.

He stared at me for a while, hand resting on the handle to the front door of the diner, but eventually shrugged off my odd behavior and went in. _Probably because he thinks I'm hungry. Everything odd can be explained by hunger with him._

I followed him in and sat across from him at our usual table next to the window facing the police station. The waiter, Ed, or whatever he said his name was, came over to give us our menus and ask for our drinks. My dad ordered a cup of mud (I had taken to calling his "joe" mud because it was so gross) and I got some apple juice. Whoever says orange juice is better, I'd like a word with them.

He left and eventually returned with our drinks. He took our orders and menus then left. When he came back with our food, I had finally determined that I had had enough of this silence, and decided to say something. My dad had the same idea, however, and beat me to the punch.

"So, the waiter looks nice. Haven't seen him before" he said, digging into his steak. I don't know how he eats that for lunch. Just too much food, man.

I rolled my eyes and took a bite of my tuna sandwich, but quickly spit it back out. _Why did I decide to order tuna? I hate fish._

As I was ruminating on my hatred of fish and how in the world had I decided to order fish, my dad grew impatient with me. "Bells?"

"Oh, what?" I asked, looking up and drinking some of my juice. It was getting empty. Where's a waiter when you need one? "I'm sorry, I wasn't listening."

"I said the new waiter looks nice. Ever think about asking him out?"

I spat out the second bite of sandwich I took (from shock this time). Had my _father_ just asked me what I _thought_ he had? Weren't dads supposed to _not_ want their daughters to date? I looked at him, painting exactly what I thought of his idea on my face. Plain ridiculousness.

"What?" He looked offended and slightly embarrassed. "Can't a father ask about his daughter's love life?"

"No, Daddy, a father cannot." I said, wiping my mouth, and deciding to give up on my sandwich. With my luck, the next bite will go the other way and I'll choke to death. I looked up at him, confused. "Why would you wanna know, anyway?"

"Well, Bells, you're already eighteen and you haven't ever gone on a date. Not once" He said, blushing a little at the topic, but looking serious nonetheless.

"Your point?" I asked, not seeing what he was getting at. Again, wasn't he supposed to be happy?

"Well, I'm worried for you. I mean, you're _eighteen_! You should be sneaking out at night to go party, or milking me for money, or spending all day at your boyfriend's house and not eating lunch with me!" He took a breath and locked eyes with me. "If you're worried about me, I'm fine. I've moved on from your mother, and can take care of myself. You, however, can't. At least, not while looking out for me. I've been thinking about this since this morning when you said you wanted M.B. under your name, and I've realized it's been bugging me for longer than that. You're going to be moving out, soon, and I don't want you to be lonely. You don't even have a _best friend_, Bella! I just-"

"Daddy!" I said, trying to pick my jaw up off the floor under the table and look him in the eyes at the same time all without cracking up and taking a much needed ROFL session. "Daddy, stop!"

"Bells, I get it, I'm just-"

"No, Daddy, you _don't_ get it!" I closed my eyes and shook my head, letting out a small chuckle. My dad was hilarious when he was flustered. "I've never had a boyfriend before because I don't think I want to deal with that kind of drama as an un-worldly teenager. I don't sneak out to parties because I think they're ridiculous and don't really care for the people there either." I didn't say that I _would_ sneak out, but I never said I _wouldn't_. "And lastly, I don't have a _best friend_ because every single person I've met, barring you and Mommy, have been outright jerks." I sat back in my seat. I hadn't noticed I'd been leaning forward. Guess I got into it a bit more than I'd meant to.

My dad looked down at his hands, his face red as a tomato. If I had been his blood daughter, I'm sure I'd have gotten my blush from him. Suddenly, he looked up at me, a mischievous smile on his face.

"Does that mean you'll still milk me for money?" He asked, raising one eyebrow, not losing his impish smile. I rolled my eyes and finished my juice, ignoring him chuckle and kick at my foot under the table. "Come on, you've gotta admit it. That was a good one."

"Yeah, Daddy, a good one," I said, pretending to be sarcastic, a smile matching his appearing on my own face.

The waiter came back with our check, giving me a wink before he left with my dad's credit card. Needless to say, I blushed like a mad woman. Did that mean what I think it meant, or does he not really work here and is going to steal my dad's money?

"Ah ha!" My dad said, raising a finger and smiling triumphantly at me. "I knew he fancied you, Bella! Daddy knows everything!" I rolled my eyes and he scoffed. "What? It's obvious that he'd like you! Just look at where you got your good looks from!"

I shook my head, choosing to ignore the fact that I was adopted.

"I think I get my looks more from mah momma, actually," I said, picking up my unused spoon and looking at it, marveling in my upside down reflection. I looked at him and gave him an appraising look. "You're looks are kind of… Blah." I actually said that with a straight face, which is more than what my dad could've done, considering the fact that he burst into laughter as soon as I finished speaking.

I smiled along with him, congratulating myself at how awesome I am at making my dad happy. _Oh, yeah. He definitely loves me more than that hunk o' junk car._ When he was done laughing, he wiped a tear away from his eye and looked at me, a sad gleam entering his eyes although his smile stayed the same.

"I sure do miss her, sometimes," he said, chuckling a bit more. "I bet she would have agreed with you, huh, Bells?"

"Yeah, she was awesome like that. I think I got my personality from her, too, Mr. Window Washer." We had a running joke that he was as dull as his job was. I would call him "Mr. Window Washer" when I teased him about stuff like that.

At that point was when the waiter, Dan or something, decided to come by and give my dad back his credit card, probably completely drained of its assets by now.

"Thanks, son." My dad put the card back in his wallet. Oh, poor, trusting old man. "Say, I haven't seen you around here, before, are you new?" _Wait, is he serious_?

"Why, yes, I am." Ted looked genuinely surprised that someone noticed. I scoffed internally. Does he not realize how small a town this is? "I've just moved in from Alaska with my parents and sister."

"Alaska, huh?" My dad sounded impressed. He'd always wanted to go there. "So it must actually be warm here in Forks, huh?"

Fred cracked a smile. "Actually, not really, but it is slightly warmer, yes," he chuckled. "Although, my sister still complains about the cold. She likes hot weather best."

"Well, Tod-

"Edward, sir."

"-Eddie," here, the waiter lost his smile somewhat. Do I sense an unloved childhood name? Yes, I do. "If you ever need someone to help you find your way around, my Bella here would be _happy _to help you out." _Oh, no. Oooohhh, no. My dad did _not_ just do what I think he did_. I glared at him with all my ninja-like might not wanting Hank to see me reacting in any way.

"Well, that's very nice of her, sir. I'd love to take her up on her offer tomorrow at school. I'm afraid it would be my sister and I's first day there, and we would appreciate the help tremendously." I turned my ninja-glare on Derrick. _How dare he speak about me like I wasn't here_? I looked back at my father. _How dare _he?

My father bid the waiter adieu when he was called to the counter by Rena, the cook and owner, and looked at me smugly.

"There. You've got yourself a date," he said, crossing his arms, ignoring my best explode-a-head glare that I had practiced just for moments like these. _Hmm… I should practice more_. "You know, this teenage dating thing isn't so hard."

"Daddy!" I whisper yelled through my teeth. "First of all, it's not a date, and second of all, I didn't even _want_ to _think_ about going on a date with him!"

"Why not?" My dad asked, confused. "He looked rather dashing to me, if that's what you mean."

"No, Daddy, that's not it." I rolled my eyes and put on a serious face. "It's something about his hair. It just looks… Weird." I said, motioning above my head with my hands to better make my point. I looked back over at Gerardo and he smiled at me, tapping his temple, telling me to remember our… Ugh, _date_. _Wait, no, Bella. Not a date. Besides, his sister'll be there. Oh yeah, I had forgotten about her_. "Besides, Daddy, his sister will be there, too, so it's not a date."

My dad looked distraught. "Oh. Well, I guess being a teenager isn't so easy, huh?" I rolled my eyes again. He suddenly looked at me with a stern expression. "Unless you're planning on two-timing! Bella, I raised you better than that!"

I rolled my eyes, _again_, and threw a crumpled up napkin at him. "Daddy," I said, "please, just drop it."

He laughed and nodded. "Alright, Bells, but I expect you to uphold the laws of the household, and not bring home a baby before you're married, or 47."

"Will do, Pops," I said, getting up, pushing my chair in (because I have _manners_), and skipping out the front door like a little girl that was ten years my junior. My dad followed me, chuckling all the way, and we got in the car.

As soon as I sat down, however, Meatball jumped on my chest and started sniffing me everywhere, as if checking for injuries.

"What's wrong, M.B.?" I asked, petting her back. My dad cooed at her, saying that it was obvious how much she missed me and that I should treat her better. I promptly rolled my eyes and looked back at Meatball, who had closed her eyes and stuck her head into my collarbone again. I buckled and my dad pulled out of the diner's parking lot.

"Are you alright?" Meatball asked, looking straight into my eyes, searching for something she couldn't find.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" I consented and spoke to her, though I tried to make it low enough so that my dad would just think it was mumbling or cooing. Meatball looked too freaked out and serious to be played with right now.

"You have the feeling of a devil radiating off of you." She stared into my eyes, unblinking (which was kinda freaky). "And the smell is even on your dad. Who did you meet in there that you hadn't yet before?"

"Uhhh…" I said, thinking back to my time in the diner. "Just some new guy waiter named Matt, why? Do you think he could have been a devil?"

"I don't know." Meatball said, hopping off of my chest and onto my lap. "It's not that strong, so my guess is that he was recently around someone else who _is_ a devil." She looked at me curiously. "Did he mention someone? A friend, perhaps? Someone odd walking down the street?"

"No…" I said, trying to remember what he said. I was too busy death-glaring my dad to remember much. "I think he just mentioned his family. You know, mom, dad, sister."

"Did he say anything else?"

"He said he came from Antarctica or something." The cat looked at me like I was crazy. "What?"

"People don't live in Antarctica, Nephling." Meatball rolled her eyes. "Are you sure he didn't say something like Alaska and you just weren't paying attention?"

"Well… Maybe." I looked away, not willing to own up to the fact that I was wrong. _Who does that, anyways_? "That's not the point, though."

"I guess you're right," the cat said, a triumphant tone in its voice. It stretched contentedly in my lap before curling up. "A devil wouldn't live in somewhere so cold, anyway. It would be unbearably uncomfortable for them."

"Right…" I said, petting her and looking out the window. I had a lot to think about today.

* * *

"I'm off, Daddy!" I shouted over my shoulder, slipping on my shoe while hopping out the front door. I had woken up half an hour late(somehow, my alarm clock had ended up unplugged and on the floor), and therefore did not have any time to put my shoes on and not hop out the front door.

As I was jumping off the step up onto our porch, I landed on an invisible sheet of ice and slipped, causing me to fall and landed on my back, bruising my spine. _Owwww…_

"Watch out for ice!" My dad yelled from the kitchen. _A little late, don't you think?_

"Thanks, Daddy…" I groaned, getting up slowly and running down the street, hitching my backpack up on my shoulder. Why hadn't I put the thing on earlier? _Might have saved myself a bruised spine._

"You alright, Neph?" Meatball asked, appearing like a magician sitting on a trashcan I ran by. She hopped off and started bounding after me, keeping up like nobody's business. "That was a rather nasty fall."

"Yeah, I'm alright M.B.," I said, trying to ignore her. I had gotten used to her disappearing and reappearing anywhere and everywhere. Although I didn't jump anymore, it did still weird me out. "It'll heal in no time, right?"

"Right." She nodded her head. We simultaneously jumped over a fallen trashcan and cut a sharp turn, starting on the long stretch straight towards the school. When we arrived, I stopped in the parking lot and noticed that I was indeed breathing hard, but more out of habit than necessity. _Odd_.

Meatball jumped up on my shoulder and started licking her paw. I swear, that cat can't go two seconds without giving itself a bath.

"Neat freak," I mumbled under my breath before walking towards the building.

"Hatchling," She shot back, otherwise ignoring I said anything.

"Bella!" I turned around, hearing someone shout my name. "There you are!"

"Who are you?" I asked, looking skeptically at the guy running at me with someone trailing him.

"You don't remember me?" He asked, looking a little hurt.

"No… I-" My gaze went up to his hair. "Oh! I know now!" I snapped my fingers. "You're the waiter guy from yesterday! Gerald, or something, right?"

"Yes! And… No. My name's actually Edward," he said, smiling again. He looked behind him and grabbed someone's shoulder, pulling them up next to him. "This is my sister, Alice."

"Hello." She said, eyeing me like I was the most interesting thing out there. _Probably a giant purple baboon that can breathe fire. _

"Hello…" I said, eyeing her back. I mean, I know I'm super cool and awesome and everything, but does she really have to look at me like that? It feels like I'm being dissected like a frog.

"I get a bad feeling from her," Meatball said in my ear. I nearly jumped, but managed not to at the last second. I had forgotten she was there.

I looked at Alice again, but shrugged it off. "I guess you guys'll be needing the admin office?" I asked, turning to start walking towards the building. Our school was split up into many tiny buildings spaced out on the land since the town was too small and broke to build a real building to house everything. It was a bummer in the colder seasons when it was raining or snowing, but we got used to it.

"Yeah, if you would." Edwart said, no doubt smiling again. Dude smiles too much, I swear.

We got to the building and Meatball jumped off my shoulder and stalked away, no doubt planning something nefarious. I opened the door for them, doing the charitable thing and standing aside in the freezing cold to let them go through. Edwart thanked me happily, and Alice just nodded, still looking like she was studying me. _Seriously, what's her problem?_

I walked in behind them and shut the door, blocking out the cold air. The lady behind the desk, Mrs. Cope, looked up at the intruders who were mercilessly bombarding her with freezing cold air, and smiled at me when she caught my eye.

"Bella! It's good to see you!" She said, rising from her seated position behind the desk to cross the room and give me a hug. "That was a wonderful game last Friday! I hope this weekend you'll be in your top form!"

Here's where I should explain something. You see, I play on a club team for soccer, the Forks and Spoons (we change our name every year and, yeah, I had a hand in naming it this year), and we travel around the state, playing any team we can get our hands on. The residents of Forks have actually set up a betting ring around our team, since we're so cool, and make a lot of money when we beat down on other teams. Although she had that slight grandmotherly look to her, Mr. and Mrs. Cope are some of the people leading the ring, and, therefore, love me. Needless to say, they treat us to nice dinners often.

"Thanks, I'll try." I lightly hugged her back. I'm not _too_ touchy feely with people I don't know. "Mrs. Cope," I gestured toward Edwart and his sister after she let me go,"this is Edwart-"

"-Edward."

"-and his sister, Alice." Edwart looked a bit perturbed. _What's with him? I'm just helping._

"Mason?" Mrs. Cope moved back behind her desk and ruffled through her papers. "Ah, here you are," she said, picking up a few pieces of paper and walking back over. "Here are your schedules and a slip to have your teachers sign. No skipping out, now, you hear?"

"Yes, Mrs. Cope." Edwart smiled charmingly and took the papers from her. I briefly wondered how he knew her name, but figured I must have said it sometime. "Wouldn't think of it." He looked at his sister. "Alice, on the other hand, you need to watch out for her. She's a regular delinquent."

"Hey!" Alice said, finally turning her eyes from me and looking towards her brother, a small pout playing on her lips. _Finally, that stare was creeping me out. _"I'm no delinquent! It was one time, and it was important!"

"Yeah, sure." Edwart rolled his eyes. "'Cause, spilling ketchup on your skirt is _totally_ a reason to skip a _whole day_ of school."

Mrs. Cope and I looked at Alice, blatantly staring. I'm sure we were both thinking the same thing. _Who eats ketchup?_

"What?" She asked, pouting at us now, looking totally innocent. "I got distracted!"

Alice pouted some more while the rest of us rolled our eyes.

"Well, dears, you'd best get going." Mrs. Cope glanced at the clock on the wall next to her desk. "You don't want to be late for class." She shooed us out of the building and slammed the door quickly, probably laughing at us for not being able to stay in the heat.

"She seems nice," Edwart said after a while, breaking me from my longing stare aimed towards the admin building.

"Oh, yeah, sometimes. Don't be fooled, though. She has a mean poker face." Not bothering to explain myself, I took the schedules from him and scanned through them. "H'okay," I said after a bit. "We all three have the same first class, but then we branch off. Alice, you and I have third period Calculus together, and Edwart, we have Biology after lunch." I handed the papers back to them. "Deal?"

Edwart nodded his affirmative and Alice just stared at the ground, looking serious_. At least she's not staring at me anymore. Made me feel as if I'd done something wrong. _I waved them to follow me and headed off to class. History in the morning wasn't too bad. I had a really good memory, so all I had to do was read the textbook through once and I could sleep through class.

When we got to class, I took a seat while the teacher told Edwart and Alice to introduce themselves. I got cozy and fell asleep, not paying attention to what they were saying.

"Hey." Someone poked me in the shoulder.

"Muh." I said, shrugging whoever off.

"Hey, wake up. Class started," they continued, poking me again, this time in the cheek.

"Let me sleeeeeep," I groaned, squeezing my eyes closed tighter. _Wait, wasn't I by myself in this class? _Judging by the distinctly female voice, and the fact that no one before bothered to sit by me, I guessed it was the ever silent Alice, sister to the dude with the creepy hair.

"No," she said, looking smug. I opened my other eye and took a minute to look at her. She had short, spiky, ink black hair, and pale skin. Even sitting down, you could tell she was short, but she looked strong. She had pixie like features and her eyes were an odd shade of… _Wait a minute_… I sat up fully, staring at her intently. _Are her pupils… slitted?_

I stared at her for a minute longer before her smug look turned serious. She looked around, then spoke in a low voice, her words flitting through my ears like wind that was barely there.

"We need to speak. Now."

**A/N: Yes, a REAL author's note. Okay, so I noticed I mispelled Nephalem in the last chapter, and a few more words after re-reading it. Nephalem is spelled with an "E" at the end, and not an "I". I will update that, but nothing else _should_ change.**

**A/R: Okay, so review, like, hate, love, mildy dislike, have feelings towards that you can't identify, run away to escape those feelings, come back, realizing that you can't escape from yourself, get run over by a bus, recover, and make me a sammich, woman!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	3. Ch 3: Condensation Built On The Desk

**A/R: Hello, all! It's been quite a while, has it not! WELL! Fear no longer! My AMAZING GENIUS is here to brighten your day, and clean up all your spills better than a Shamwow!**

**Okay, so, not the longest of chapters, but I just had to end it here. Just had to, man.**

**And I apologize TREMENDOUSLY for taking so long. I woke up one day four days ago and my interwebs were shot. When I FINALLY got my dad to fix it(well, my mother did, but I digress) my siblings did something to get EVERYONE grounded from ALL electronics. Alas, I could not finish my story until just now. Luckily, my brother fessed up and we got off yesterday, if we hadn't, then, well, you'd still be stuck in a dreary old day filled with the kind of rain I DON'T like(is there such a thing?) and lots of kitten kickers. The fiends! I just saved you from a travesty! THANK ME GLORIOUSLY!**

**Disclaimer: H'otay. Well. Anything publicly recognizable, unless I made it up and told EVERYONE in public so as to MAKE it publicly recognizable, I do not own. I do, however, own my soul, which isn't saying much for my brothers, since they don't own their own souls. I DO.**

***Updated***

**Chapter Three. Condensation Built On The Desk.**

"Alice needs to go to the nurse!" I shouted, standing up suddenly, banging one hand on the desk in front of me and raising the other in the air.

The teacher, Ms. Wellington, sighed and turned around to glare at me. All the teachers here either hate or love me for one reason or another. "And _why_ would she need to go to the nurse, _Bella_?" she asked, clearly agitated that I had interrupted her doodling of indecipherable maps on the chalk board.

"She needs medication for her explosive diarrhea," I said matter-of-factly. The teacher looked taken aback and totally disgusted. She was definitely going to give in. _I'm a total genius_. I was musing in my genius-ness when I heard a low growling. I looked down, noticing the noise was coming from Alice. _Huh. Maybe I wasn't fibbing_. "Quickly, Miss Beef!" I shouted again, slamming my air-born hand down on the desk.

"Take her to the nurse," Ms. Wellington sighed, shaking her head and turning back to the chalkboard. She must really love doodling.

"Come on." I grabbed Alice's arm and led her out of the classroom, grabbing the hall passes that Ms. Wellington had set on her desk for us. When we got out into the hall, I directed us towards the Nurse's office. "Don't worry," I said, "We'll get you some medicine." Alice ripped her arm from my grasp and punched me in the shoulder. "Ow!"

"What was that for!" she yelled, obviously angry for some reason.

"Shouldn't _I_ be asking that!" I defended, rubbing my shoulder and wincing at how it stung. _That's definitely going to bruise_. "Why'd you punch me!"

"Why'd you have to say I have 'explosive diarrhea'!"

I looked at her. "What, you don't?" She looked at me, dumbfounded. _She seriously doesn't_?

"Of course I don't!" she said, incredulous. "I'm not sure if that even _exists_!"

"Of _course_ it exists," I said, shaking my head. "I saw it on T.V. Everything on T.V. exists." She shook her head at me and sighed, mumbling something under her breath that sounded like "they're always the dumb ones" or something along those lines. _Couldn't be talking about me, could she_?

"Where are we going, anyway?" she asked, looking around. "And we better not _actually_ be heading to the Nurse's office." Just as she said that, we came up to the turn that would take us to just that place. I passed it, trying to play it off as if we had gone by there by coincidence.

"Uhhh…" I looked around. "Just behind the cafeteria. No one's there this time of day, so nobody should hear us." She nodded her head and looked straight forward, seemingly getting lost in thought.

When we arrived, I stopped and leaned my side against the wall, facing Alice. "So, what'd you want?"

In a blur of motion, Alice had me pinned to the wall, her forearm pressed tightly against my throat. Somehow, she had gotten my arms stuck behind my back, so I couldn't really push her off of me. Not that I could even if they weren't, she was unnaturally strong for someone her size.

"What are you?" She hissed out in that weird way of speaking that sounded like the wind, baring her teeth at me. She pressed down on my throat harder when I didn't answer. "_Speak_."

"I-What do you mean!" I squeaked, barely able to form words.

"Why don't you speak in The Tongue?" She asked, confused, letting up on my throat a bit.

"What tongue!" I asked, using her confusion to push her off of me and scurry away from her. I grabbed my throat. _Man, that hurts!_ "What are you talking about!"

"I can help, Neph." I looked up and saw Meatball sitting on the cafeteria roof. It was kind of high up, so I was surprised I could see it at first, but figured I still had my awesome hawk eyes. The rest of my senses had died down a little, leaving me at a level slightly more than Human, but not as intense as when I first woke up. She jumped down and landed in between Alice and me, hissing slightly at her and going into a defensive stance as if to protect me.

"Spiritus Dux," Alice said, hissing slightly. "So you _are_ one of them."

"One of what!" I asked again, bewildered and slightly overwhelmed. "Who _are_ you!"

"Dimidium Diabolus." _Half Devil_. Meatball relaxed her stance and sat down to lick her paw. I swear, she can't go even two minutes without cleaning herself. "Do not worry; she will not do anything with so many people around. Her Human half wouldn't allow it."

"You wouldn't know that!" Alice hissed at Meatball, earning a glare from said cat. "I'm a Devil! I could kill all these Humans and not even flinch!"

"Fine, do it," Meatball said, looking unconcerned. Alice stepped back, surprised. She looked down, seeming as if she was trying not to blush. Meatball looked up at her, a smug smile on her face. "I told you."

I rolled my eyes. "Can we please stop embarrassing the could-be murderer and figure out _why _she was threatening my life?"

"That's a good question," Meatball said, looking at me, then at Alice. "From what I know, Dimidiums don't go after Nephalem. Tell me, why _were_ you threatening Bella?"

"Her feel. It made me confused," Alice said, looking up at us, sobering instantly. "She smells like… _Them_, but she feels… She feels like me." Meatball and I both looked at her, and then cocked our heads to the side at the same time. Alice shook her head and sighed. "Her aura, the feeling she emits. At times… It feels like mine, like she's a comrade. Someone I should trust. Do you get it?"

"Somewhat." Meatball said, looking off into space for a moment, and then fixing her gaze back on Alice. "So you didn't move here to come after Bella?" Alice shook her head. "Then why _did_ you move here?"

"My adopted family wished to move." she said, crossing her arms. A creepy smile grew on her face. "The neighbors didn't like me, the school detested me, and the _whole town_ was frightened of me. My parents decided that it was just an 'environment' issue, so we moved here."

"So…" I said, putting an index finger on my chin. "You _don't_ want to kill me?" Alice gave me a look, as if sizing me up.

"No, not anymore." she looked to Meatball. "Why doesn't she speak in The Tongue?"

"Who's tongue?" I asked, confused.

"She is a hatchling. She does not know _how_," Meatball said, ignoring me.

"Hello?" I said, taking a step forward.

"How is that possible? Don't Nephalem awaken at the age of twelve?" Alice said, also ignoring me.

"What does she mean?" I said, moving so I could see both of their faces.

"I do not know. She awoke Saturday morning." Meatball looked at me, still not acknowledging I said anything.

"So that's who that was." Alice mused. "I assumed it was just another young Nephalem, not a late bloomer."

"She definitely kept me waiting. Most would have given up after the thirteenth birthday, but I had a good feeling about her. Lucky for me, I'm stubborn."

"Hey!" I shouted, irritated for obvious reasons. I stepped in between them and waved my arms. "Stop ignoring me! I have questions, too!"

"What are your questions, Neph?" Meatball sighed. I crossed my arms and "hmphed", but decided to voice my questions anyway.

"Who's tongue are we talking about, and _why_ are we talking about it?" I asked, pointing one finger up, then the other.

"It is not someone's _tongue_ as in the muscle, Neph; it is a tongue as in a _language_," Meatball said.

"Oh," I said, kind of upset at myself. _Shouldn't I have known_?

"It is not your fault you do not know of it, Neph," Meatball said, looking sympathetic. "Do not be hard on yourself; it is something I must teach you personally."

"Then why could I understand Alice when she was speaking to me?" I put up a third finger.

"It's a survival thing," Alice cut in. "You can understand them, so you know what's going on, but you must be taught to speak the language. It's so you know when someone is speaking in The Tongue to you, or if they're giving you orders, you know what they're saying."

"Why?" I put up a fourth finger.

"Because it is, or was, the language of the Father," Alice said, rolling her eyes. "If you speak it to a mortal being, then they will be compelled to listen to whatever you say."

"Why 'was'?" I asked, confused, putting up a fifth finger. "Shouldn't it still be?" sixth finger.

"Well, it was adapted by the Devils and 'corrupted'." she put air quotes up with her fingers. "So I doubt they use it anymore."

"Why can mortals understand it?" seventh finger.

"They can't," Meatball said, taking over. "All they hear is the wind. They _are_ compelled to do as we say, but they think they are their _own_ ideas."

"That's…" I looked down and dropped my hands. "…So cool!" I fisted my hands, trying to stop myself from shaking from excitement. I snapped my head up and looked at meatball, a face splitting grin adorning my features. "Can I learn! Please, please, _please_!" I was practically jumping up and down by then.

"Of course, Neph." Meatball said, chuckling. "You must promise, though, not to use it without dire need. It is a powerful tool, and it must not be used lightly." my face dropped a bit.

"Then why was Alice using it?" I whined, slumping forward a bit.

"I can use it whenever I _want_!" Alice said, crossing her arms and putting on a smug grin. "I'm a _Devil_. I'm _evil_. That means _no_ rules." Meatball rolled her eyes, but other than that, ignored her.

"The Tongue can also be a form of communication between immortal beings. Mortals cannot even recognize when immortals are speaking it. They won't even see your mouths move."

"So, it's like speaking with your mind?" I asked.

"Close, but no cigar." Alice rolled her eyes. "You still have to _speak_, excors." _Idiot_.

"Hey!" I shouted after a while. It took a bit for me to realize she was speaking in Latin. _I think I'm getting better at differentiating different languages_. "I'm not an idiot!"

"Clearly." Alice rolled her eyes again and looked at her watch. "We should head back. We kind of missed half of second period."

"Ah, that's okay," I said, choosing to forget the fact that she called me an idiot just minutes before. "You're new, so we can use the excuse that I was showing you around." I turned to Meatball. "You, stay here."

"Pft," she said, somehow making that noise without lips. "I'm going wherever I want." she looked over at Alice. "You should come over sometime and help me teach dimwit, here." she then bounded into the trees at the edge of the property and disappeared.

"I'm not a dimwit," I said, glaring after Meatball. "Eh, her loss. I was going to give her my leftovers from lunch." I looked at Alice and motioned for her to follow me. "Come on. I'll show you where Calculus is."

Alice nodded and followed silently behind me as I made my way to class. The rest of the day went by uneventfully (_boringly_ if you ask me). Calculus was a bore for the most part, with small reprieves when Alice would crack a joke (for she sat with me in that class, as well). Lunch was mostly the same, except, instead of sitting by myself, Alice and Eddie sat with me, the latter chatting up a storm while I sat silently and Alice added her two cents in every now and then. Biology was the same, except there was no Alice so I was stuck with a chatty Cathy (or chatty Eddie?) eating my ear off.

When I finally got home, I locked the door, kicked my shoes off in the door well, and plopped face first on the couch. Meatball came in not far behind me and sat on the back of my head.

"Long day, eh?" she asked, probably licking herself.

I groaned in response.

"Learned a lot of new things."

I groaned again.

"Met some new people."

I shifted my head, warning Meatball so she would jump off me, before I sat up and looked at her, one eyebrow raised in silent question. "Your point?" as soon as I asked that, the doorbell rang and I groaned again. "That better not be who I think it is." Meatball looked at me innocently as I got up and unlocked the door, expecting to see Alice, but instead being greeted with the slightly damp form of my father.

"H-hey, Bells. M-mind letting m-me in?" he asked, teeth chattering from the cold. I stepped aside and he came in, shaking like a dog to get the water out of his hair and mustache. "S-sorry about that," he said, grabbing the blanket we kept hanging on the back of the couch and wrapping himself in it. "Forgot I ch-changed the locks." he changes the locks every Thursday. Says it's a tradition passed down from his grandfather. I say it's just dear old gramps trying to get him to waste money and time. He never did like his grandson.

"You alright, Daddy?" I asked, forgetting about today in my worry. He nodded and I sighed. "Go upstairs and take a warm bath so you don't get sick. Don't worry about getting clothes out first; I'll set them on your bed for you." my dad and I lived in a huge upper-middle class house and we both bunked in master bedrooms, so I didn't have to take the chance of seeing him unclothed if I just stayed out of his room.

"Alright, Bells," he said, sneezing. He smiled at me when I told him "bless you" and only smiled wider when I made a disgusted face at the mucus stuck in his mustache (that looked a lot like Flanders' from the Simpsons) and shooed him upstairs. After I heard the door close and the shower turn on with my new and improved super hearing, I ran up and got him out clothes, all at the speed of light. Well, not quite that fast, but it was faster than I'd ever gone before.

When I got back downstairs, I sat back on the couch and turned the T.V. on with the remote, totally missing the extra person in my living room.

"Well, isn't that a nice way to greet a guest." I jumped about five feet in the air, "eep"-ing, and landed on my face on the floor. Someone snickered. "That's a bit better."

"Alice!" I shouted, getting up off the floor and marveling at how my nose wasn't broken, but mostly glowering at Alice for breaking into my house. "What are you doing here! Get out!"

"Uh-uh," Alice said, not moving from her spot on my couch. She leaned back, putting her hands behind her head and propping her feet on the small footstool we have laying around. I think it's more of a trip-Bella-and-make-her-hit-her-head-on-the-T.V. rather than a footstool. "I was invited by Dirige." _Guide_. I looked at her skeptically. I was sure that she was trying to confuse me by speaking in Latin.

"I did invite her, don't you remember?" Meatball said from her perch on the back of the couch. I tried to recall her ever doing that, but all I could remember was that demented cat insulting me.

"No," I said plainly. Meatball shook her head and I shrugged my shoulders. At least Alice wasn't her chatty brother. I plopped back on the couch a cushion away from Alice and put my feet in the space between us.

"So," she said, looking around. I turned down the T.V. and looked at her, raising an eyebrow. "Got any siblings?"

"Nope." I scrunched my brows in thought. "Well, one up in Heaven, I guess, but she's fine. If Heaven _does_ exist, Momma's up there with her."

"You're mother's dead?" Alice asked, her tone and face neutral, but I could see something akin to sorrow flash in her eyes. That, or it could have been a flashlight. I looked behind me and out a window. _Was someone playing with flashlights?_

"Yeah, but I'm over it. Me an' Pops're toootally tight, even by ourselves, yo." I made mock gang signs and crossed my arms after sitting up. Alice laughed and I smiled. I'd rather her think me a fool than pity me. The one thing I hated more than window graffiti artists and criminals and bad people in general was people pitying me. I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself.

"Well, let's get to the point of dear little Alice's visit, shall we?" Meatball said, yawning. "Neph, I called her here to help me train you. Seeing as how Nephalem are supposed to awaken at the age of twelve and spend six years under the tutelage of us Spiritus Dux before they reach their full power at age eighteen, we have a lot of catching up to do." she looked over to Alice. "I've reached out to Alice to help me contain you during our training."

I scratched my belly. "Why would I need to be 'contained'?" I asked, using air quotes when necessary. Alice rolled her eyes and Meatball sighed. "What?"

"Neph, you have awakened at the pinnacle point of your race. You have the most power you're ever going to have right now, and with no training whatsoever, you will not be able to control it. Thus you need to be contained."

"Ooo, I can't wait!" Alice said, rubbing her hands together. "A Nephalem's power uncontrolled has got to be the most explosive thing I'll ever see!"

"Explosive?" I asked, my voice a squeak. "No one ever said anything about explosions!"

"Oh, hush, Neph," Meatball shushed me and jumped onto the footstool. "It won't harm you while I'm there. We are deployed to _help_ our charges, not _harm_ them." she rolled her eyes. "Come on, I'll show you where we'll be training for as long as we're here."

Alice and I stood up and followed Meatball out the backdoor. I left a note to my dad telling him I'd be frolicking in a field of explosives, of course, because I'm a good daughter and I let him know what I'm up to. We walked through the forest behind my house, probably heading to some sort of super secret training hall. Or, you know, something.

"So how are you going to stop Bella from getting hurt?" Alice asked after we had been walking in silence for what I guessed was a half hour. "Have you got some kind of spell that stops her from feeling pain or something?" As she said this, she had an evil glint in her eye. _I think I should fear for my life_.

"Heavens no!" Meatball said, aghast. "That would turn her into some kind of unfeeling zombie!" Alice lost her evil glint and looked kind of disappointed. _I should definitely fear for my life_.

"Then how?" I asked, curious now. "Do I become the Invincible Super Kid?" I struck a hero pose and puffed my chest up to make myself look more muscley than usual.

"No, Neph," Meatball said, shaking her head. We broke through the trees and stopped in a rather large clearing. _Looks perfect for supernatural baseball! _"I will simply put locks on your power that will stay on until I take them off, go a set distance away from you, or you break them yourself by exerting so much power."

"OOO!" I said, jumping up and down, eyes alight with excitement. "Do I get some kind of cool looking chains or something! Or an awesome bracelet! _Or_ cool ankle locks? Like the kind prisoners wear! OOO! Do I get an orange jumpsuit! Can my numbers be 24536700-"

"Bella!" Alice yelled, smacking me in the back of the head to shut me up. "Cut it out! You're giving me a headache!" I rubbed my head and glared at Alice. _I don't see how someone can interrupt someone in the middle of an excited rant. It's just unthinkable._

"No, Neph. They will be completely spiritual." I looked at Meatball, slumping my shoulders, a completely crushed look on my face. "Stop it, Neph." I looked at her, my eyes watering. "Quit it, Neph. I won't give in." I stuck my lip out in a pout and started sniffling. She tried to look away, but eventually caved. "AGH! FINE!" she yelled, spitting at me in the weird cat spitty way cats have. "Brace yourself!"

"Brace myself? For wha- oof!" Meatball jumped on me, knocking me over, and pressed her head into the dip in my collarbone. Before I could even say "ow", my mouth was forced open as a blue ray of pure energy shot out of it. My eyes shot out blue as well, and my whole body glowed. Alice told me later that a sharp, high pitched screech blasted throughout the clearing so high, only immortals would be able to hear it.

I vaguely remember Alice throwing her arms up, only to be pushed down to her knees as something like glass rained down on her only seconds after it began. The light gradually became weaker until it finally sputtered out like a small flame.

I lay there, completely still, eyes closed, my body throbbing like I was just in the middle of a herd of dance passionate elephants. Meatball staggered off of me, exhausted. She did her best to walk over to Alice before collapsing onto her belly, but only made it half way.

"That… Was more of a challenge… Than I anticipated…" she panted, closing her eyes. "It was as if… It was fighting me… It was like… It was… _More_ than just Angelic power. All I could lock away… Was the Angelic power. I couldn't… Do more than hide that… _Other_ power." she opened her eyes and turned to look at me. "Maybe that was the reason… You hadn't awoken until now."

"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice a raspy whisper. I opened my eyes to look at them. I winced and closed my eyes. My throat felt as if I had been drinking molten lava, and my eyes felt hyper sensitive.

"Does that mean…" Alice said, still on her knees from before. "That that just now _wasn't_ her full power?" her voice was shaky, but filled with awe and a slight bit of fear. "What does that mean for us?"

Meatball looked at Alice, then me, and chuckled. "It means a lot more… Hardcore training… Than I first thought." she then passed out like a pansy.

"Hah!" I attempted at shouting, but it came out as more of a throaty whisper. "Pansy."

"Bella!" Alice called, rushing over to my side. She dropped down on her knees next to me and tried to touch me, but before she even got close, I flinched, causing myself some tremendous pain, and she pulled back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." I said, laughing. I tried to turn my head to look at her, but my vision started to blur and go out before flickering back in when I blinked. "Whoa, hazy."

"Be careful, Bella." Alice warned, her voice low and without emotion. Even in my horrid state I could tell that she was trying to be a "big bad Devil" and not care, but I'm way too awesome not to care about. That, and she was doing a bad job at hiding it.

"Alice?" I asked, close to passing out.

"Yeah?"

"Come closer." I coughed out.

She leaned in closer.

"Closer."

She leaned in closer.

"I've been meaning to tell you this all day, but…" I coughed again, blood coming up from my raw throat.

"'But' what, Bella?" she asked, her eyes tearing up, throwing off all pretenses of not caring for my awesome self.

"I thought… I might never get the chance."

"Go on and tell me, Bella." she closed her eyes tightly, as if afraid of something. _Hah_.

"Your…" she subconsciously leaned in closer until her ear was right over my mouth so she could hear what I whisper. "Your breath stinks." I started laughing as hard as I possibly could without busting a lung, and she pulled back quickly, startling me.

_"Bella, what are you doing!"_

_"Someone, get her out of here!_

_"No, Mommy! Mommy! I can save you! Don't leave me! Don't leave me!"_

"Wait!" I yelled, pushing myself up and grabbing her arm before she could pull away any further. I cried out in pain, my body stinging sharply. Alice pushed me back down, but refused to look at me, obviously mad at my attempt at comedy. "Don't leave me…" and with that last bit of exertion, I passed out, but not before I could register Alice grabbing my hand and mumbling something.

**A/R: AAAAAND THAT'S WHAT YOU CALL A TROLLLLLLL! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH! That's most possibly the MOST EPICEST TROLL in the WHOLE of FAN FICTION! BAM!**

**So. Alice has a complex. Who'd'a thunk it? She was raised to be the _perfect_ Devil, but, alas, she is too Human to commit. She cares, and she doesn't _want_ to care, so she's at war with herself. Deep, yeah? I can be deep if I want to. Just you wait. Oohohohohoooh. Just yooou wait.**

**Oh, and if you haven't noticed, the characters ARE kinda OOC, but that's on purpose, so no complaining.**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	4. Ch 4: I'm Ecstatically Odd!

**A/R: Why, hello there, mah peeps! Glad you could make it back from your long trip south! I've been meaning to ask, why would you go south in the summer?**

**ANYWAY!**

**This one is brought to you by the amazing little people who live in a certain Afroed man's Afro. I'm just a ghost writer. Well... It's more like _I_ wrote it, and they stole it from me, then made me pay for the rights to it because they're little cheats.**

**This chapter is a tad bit longer than my other ones. I would have made it longer, because I wanted to get to a certain point before I ended it, but I guess I didn't make it. Maybe the action will be in the next chapter. Maybe not. We'll see.**

**Disclaimer: Any and all things publicly recognizable do not belong to me. What _does_ belong to me, though, is... Well... Barely anything, really. Not until I'm eighteen.**

**Chapter Four. I'm Ecstatically Odd.**

Darkness. That's all I saw when I woke up. I tried to look around, but all I saw was black. I soon realized I had my eyes closed and promptly opened them.

I sat up and looked around, bringing a hand to my temple when I felt that I had a huge headache. This place didn't look familiar, and the answers to my silent questions had yet to fly through my ear and into my head. Those questions being: Where was I, and what had happened the day prior?

I looked down at my lap and noticed that I was sitting in a bed with the blankets covering my lower half. I pulled them off of me and saw that my shoes had been taken off of my feet. _Had I been kidnapped by a psycho-shoe-thief-Bella-napper? Probably._

I closed my eyes and tried to listen for any movement in the house (for I guessed it was a house I was in) outside of the room I occupied. I heard light footsteps that seemed familiar, as if I'd heard them before, coming closer to my destination. When they reached the door, I quickly jumped soundlessly over the bed and hid on the side furthest from the door.

I heard the door open and someone walk in slowly. I heard the light pad of four feet landing on the floor and walking over to the bed. I closed my eyes and scrunched lower in my hiding spot, trying not to be seen. They stopped on the other side of the bed and I heard the four legged creature sit down.

"Neph."

"GAAHHH!" I screamed and jumped up to my feet, my eyes flying open and my heart attempting to jump out of my chest. I grabbed at my shirt, trying to quell my hearts attempt at escape, and looked down to where I heard the voice come from at my feet. "Meatball!" I hissed, silently cursing her mysterious ability to go from one place to another without moving. "What are you trying to do!"

"Wake you up." She said, licking her paw. I sat down on the bed and looked at her, raising a quizzical eyebrow.

"Meatball, where am I? What happened?" Meatball looked up at me, a small look of surprise on her face.

"You don't remember?" She asked, putting her paw down and looking behind me at something, raising her eyebrows. Before I could answer in the negative, or look behind me to see what she was looking at, flashes of what happened just hours ago passed in front of my eyes.

_Meatball jumped on me, knocking me over, and pressed her head into the dip in my collarbone. Before I could even say "ow", my mouth was forced open as a blue ray of pure energy shot out of it. My eyes shot out blue as well, and my whole body glowed…._

… _Alice throwing her arms up, only to be pushed down to her knees as something like glass rained down on her only seconds after it began. The light gradually became weaker until it finally sputtered out like a small flame…._

…_I lay there, completely still, eyes closed, my body throbbing like I was just in the middle of a herd of dance passionate elephants. Meatball staggered off of me, exhausted…_

… _She closed her eyes tightly, as if afraid of something._ Hah_…_

…"_Your… Your breath stinks."_

"Neph?" Meatball asked from my lap. I looked down at her. _How'd she get there?_ "You okay?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah." I said, cracking my neck, trying to make it less stiff. "I was just having a flashback. You know, with those wavy effects and everything?" Meatball shook her head and I heard footsteps from behind me again. I jumped up and turned, holding Meatball in one arm with the other out, ready to intercept and redirect, and bent my knees, ready to move if attacked. My mouth was in a threatening snarl and a low growling sound emitted from deep within my chest. I saw it was just Alice, with quite a freaked out look on her face, and straightened out, ceasing my odd growling. I looked down. _Why am I so jumpy? And what was with that growling?_

"Bella?" She asked warily, scooting forward slowly. "You alright?"

"Yeah." I said, confused at my sudden jumpiness and my growling. I looked up at her, noticing she relaxed a bit at my confused expression. "What just happened?" She shrugged and Meatball squirmed in my grasp. I let go of her and she landed softly, emitting a sound even Alice's and my heightened hearing could barely pick up.

"You were feeling threatened, Neph." She jumped up on the bed so she wouldn't have to crane her neck so much to look at me. "Your power is still raw in you, making you slightly animalistic, and it, coupled with the fact that you are in unfamiliar territory, caused you to become threatened by every little thing until your brain caught up with your instincts." I was silent for a while, trying to process this. _Now I'm an animal, too?_

"Well!" Alice said, clapping her hands. "That's all fine and dandy, but can you _please_ get out of my house? Eddie and my parents should be home soon-"

"Wait, what time is it?" I interrupted. She rolled her eyes and pointed towards the nightstand next to the bed I had previously been lying on (which I now assumed was hers, since it _was_ her house and all) which had a digital clock on it. It was almost 9:00 PM. So that means, since school gets out at 5:00, it takes me twenty minutes to walk home, and we were in the forest for approximately an hour, I had been sleeping for around two and a half hours. _Well, that's not too bad._

"Now that you know the time, you should _really_ get going." Alice said, walking out of the room and probably towards the door. Meatball jumped on my shoulder and I followed her, looking around for my shoes on the way. I found them by the wall next to the door, grabbed them, and sat down to put them on. "If my parents find out I brought someone home, they're gonna go crazy and if Eddie finds out I brought _you specifically_ home without telling him, he's gonna kill me."

"Why didn't you bring me to my house, anyway?" I asked when I had my shoes on, standing up from where I was sitting. I can only guess why Edwart would go crazy, and those guesses weren't desirable ones. "You know where it is."

"W-well, I-" She blushed and turned around. She coughed and mumbled something I could in fact _hear_, but decided not to. My face erupted into a Cheshire grin. _Revenge_.

"What'd you say?" I asked, putting my hand behind my ear to better the capacity it had for picking up sound waves and leaning forward slightly. "I couldn't rightly hear you."

"I said I was…" She trailed off into a mumble again, only slightly louder than last time.

"What was that?" I leaned forward more, my grin growing wider. "I must be growing old, 'cause I couldn't hear you then, either."

"I said I was wor…" She trailed off a _third_ time.

"Wha-" Before I could even get out one word, she whipped around to face me, her hands balled at her sides, her cheeks flush like a ripe tomato, and her face a mix of embarrassment and anger.

"I SAID I WAS WORRIED!" She shouted. I took a step back and covered my ears from the sheer _volume_ her shout was, my smile still in place. "I WAS WORRIED YOU'D DIE, AND SINCE MY HOUSE WAS CLOSER, I BROUGHT YOU HERE! THERE! YOU HAPPY!" When she was finished, she was breathing hard. Suddenly, she whipped her head to the left to stare at the door that was open and filled with a pair of older people, who looked a lot like Edwart, who were standing with their mouths agape and shocked expressions on their faces, staring, unblinkingly, at Alice, Meatball, and I.

"Uhhh…" I said, dropping my smile. My utterance drew their stare directly towards me, kind of freaking me out.

"Alice!" The male, who I assumed was their father, shouted suddenly, excitedly, making both of us jump. He looked to Alice with a bright smile on his face, delighted for unknown reasons.

"Y-yes?" She squeaked, all color draining from her face. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Yes, Dad?"

"You've brought a friend over! That's great!" He looked to his wife, a smile matching his own adorning her face, as well. "That _is_ great, right Linda?"

She nodded enthusiastically and stepped forward, towards me, and stuck her hand out to shake. I warily took her hand, and she started shaking it up and down so fast, looking at it made me dizzy.

"Hello!" She said brightly. "My name is Linda Mason, and this is my husband, Gregory Mason. It's a pleasure to meet you! How did you meet my daughter here? Is she treating you alright? She hasn't done anything bad to you, has she? Was she good at school? Is this your cat?"

"Bella." I said, trying to take my hand from hers without hurting her when she added a second one to the handshake, but failing miserably. "And, likewise. I actually met her brother, Eddie, at the diner yesterday, and my dad asked me to show them around school." Her eyes lit brighter when she heard mention of her son, but she stayed silent. "She's treating me fine, she almost killed me, and I guess she was fine at school. Oh, and, yes, this is my cat, Meatball." When I was finished Meatball hissed and jumped off my shoulder and out the front door, which was still open. "Sorry, she prefers I call her M.B." Mrs. Mason looked at me oddly before remembering what I had said about her daughter. She looked at her Alice with a stern gaze; probably about to reprimand her, but Mr. Mason beat her to the punch.

"Mary Alice Mason!" He said in and even, stern, tone. "You almost killed your new friend? I thought we talked about how to treat people!" I snickered. _Her name is Mary? How ironic for a Devil._

"We did, but-" Alice tried to defend herself, but was interrupted by her mother.

"No 'buts', Mary!" Mrs. Mason shook her head slowly. "There are no 'buts' when treating someone right. And 'right' means no ending of lives!" She looked at me with an apologetic smile, about to speak, but I stopped her before she could say anything.

"No, Mrs. Mason, it's fine. Really." I put on a reassuring smile and cocked my head to the side. "Besides, I got her back, good. Multiple times, even." Mr. and Mrs. Mason looked at me, shocked, and then excused themselves to go talk in the kitchen in hushed voices that I could hear clearly.

"Greg, I think she's found best friend material." Mrs. Mason whispered hurriedly to her husband.

"I think you're right, Lin. What should we do?" He asked, his voice worried and strained. He'd obviously never been in such a situation before.

"Maybe we can set them up to hang out, more. Knowing Alice, she'll probably fudge it up the first chance she gets. The poor girl can keep money longer than she can keep a friend, and you know how she shops." Mrs. Mason responded thoughtfully.

"But how?" Mr. Mason said. I could hear him scratching his chin, and twitched slightly due to his use of "but", but ignored it.

I had been holding back a laugh as Alice silently growled at me throughout the whole conversation. When I turned my gaze from the kitchen entrance and looked at her I had to try harder to hold it back because of the mortified look on her face.

"Oh! I know!" Mr. Mason said, suddenly interrupting the silence that had fallen since they had stopped to think. "We should take Edward somewhere over the weekend and get Bella to stay over for some 'female bonding time'." I could imagine the air quotes he was most likely adding to the last three words of his sentence.

"Great idea, hun!" Mrs. Mason whispered joyfully and kissed her husband. I stuck my tongue out, grossed out by the act. He thanked her and then they both came back into the living room, matching smiles on their faces.

"Well, Bella, it's been nice meeting you. I do hope you'll stop by again some time, but it's late, and I'm sure your parents are worried." Mr. Mason said, shaking my hand. When he let go, I discreetly wiped my hand on my pants. The guy had sweated in all his excitement and he got it on me. _Gross_.

"She only has a father, _Dad_." Alice said, crossing her arms and rolling her eyes. Her dad looked embarrassed, and tried to apologize, but I cut him off, saying it was fine, and that the tragedy had happened a long time ago.

"Do you need someone to drive you home, sweetie?" Mrs. Mason asked a slight worried tone to her voice. I shook my head no and headed to the door, but she persisted. "Oh, posh, of course you do! Here, Alice will drive you home, wont she?" She glanced over to Alice with a stern look in her eye and only looked back when she saw the slight slump of defeat in her posture. "Be back soon, honey!" After that, she all but pushed us out the door (actually, there might have been a bit of pushing) and shut it, locking it so we couldn't get back in.

"Well." I said, looking around and rocking onto my tip toes and back. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

"That was horrible!" Alice whined, putting her head in her hands. "Did you hear what they said in the kitchen! They're setting me up for a… For a…"

"Sleep over?" I supplied. She groaned and started walking forwards to what, I assumed, was her car. It was some kind of convertible with the top up in a very nice looking lizard green color. She unlocked the door and got in, practically breaking the door off its hinges when she slammed it. I followed her lead and got in the passenger seat, but refrained from trying to break the door.

"So..." I said, looking over at her as she backed out of her driveway and started heading to my house. "You've got a very nice car." She smiled and petted the dash, nodding her head in acknowledgement of my compliment. "Is green your favorite color?" She immediately dropped her smile and shook her head.

"No. It's red." She said her voice neutral. I'd come to learn, over the long time I've spent with her that day, that her voice went neutral when she lied.

"Mhmm." I looked back to the road in front of us and leaned my seat back, getting comfortable. "Mine's blue." She didn't respond, but I assumed she heard me and closed my eyes, putting my arm over them to block out the minimal light filtering through the car windows from the street lights outside.

Alice shook me when she parked in front of my house. I awoke with a start, not realizing I had fallen asleep. I thanked her for the drive home and got out of the car, walking up to my front door and waving at her before she drove off. I quickly went inside, said hello and goodnight to my father, who commented on how cool my new shackles were, and went to bed. I don't know why, but I felt all tuckered out, so I plopped face first on my bed without changing and fell asleep instantly. I think, while I was sleeping, I felt Meatball climb in my window again and curl up on my back, but I must've been dreaming, because when I woke up, she wasn't there, and my window was closed.

That night, I dreamed of something odd. It was my house, but it was filled with fire, and instead of hearing the T.V. blaring throughout, I heard blood curdling screams. What made it even odder was that I wasn't worried. It was like I was removed from the scene, just watching, but still _there_. It was liked I was physically there, but emotionally, I was somewhere else.

It was kind of fuzzy, and it would jump from scene to scene every now and again, but I knew one thing. I was running. I was running, and I was running fast. Urgently, even. It was like I was running on a treadmill, just standing in the same place, but running. Going somewhere, but going nowhere. I know it doesn't make sense, but that's what it was like.

The next morning, I woke up, not remembering much from my dream, but three points being clear in my mind. The screaming, the fire, and the running.

**The Next Day.**

I don't know why, but the next day I was feeling rather melancholy. When I walked out my front door, slowly so as to not skip on ice, and looked up at the sky, wondering exactly what the weather might be like, hoping it was bad enough for me to stay home, it was sunny. I sighed. _Alas, 'twas a foolish dream, one that only comes true when something exciting is happening at school, like the President making a show, or pie at the cafeteria._

I sighed again and looked back at the ground, seeing Meatball staring at me silently at my feet. I crouched down and petted her, scratching the space on her neck that's hidden behind her collar. She loves that. She immediately began purring and closed her eyes to immerse her in the feeling.

"Mmm… That's good…" She purred, lolling her head back so I could get a better angle. "So, what do you want?" _Smart cat. Knows when I want something._

"What say you to a proposal?" I asked silently, so my dad couldn't over hear me speaking like a cat. Meatball eyed me, but allowed me to continue.

"Like what?"

"How about we stay home from school today?" Meatball pulled back suddenly, ceasing her purring and shot a glare at me.

"Neph, school is important." She reprimanded, taking on a motherly tone. "As long as you stay in one place, you must attend."

"And what will I do when we aren't staying in one place?" I asked, standing up, raising one eyebrow in challenge as I crossed my arms.

"Then I will tutor you until you no longer need tutoring." She said, shaking her head. "Anyway, there is no avoiding it. Go to school and talk to Alice. Have her walk home with you."

"Why?" I asked, uncrossing my arms and hooking my thumbs in my backpack, my expression becoming one of mild curiosity.

"You need to learn quickly how to harness and restrain your power. It won't be long until _actual Devils _come along to attempt at your life." She turned around. "Meet me back at that clearing we were in yesterday. Alice and I set up wards around it so no one who doesn't have Angelic power, or isn't with one who does, will be able to enter the clearing. They will simply be redirected by thought, kind of like how The Tongue works."

With that said, she turned and bounded off behind the house. I sighed again and made my slow trek towards school, dreading the people I'd have to deal with when there. Or, more like one person, but still.

When I arrived at school, I immediately started walking around the parking lot, seeking out Alice. I had been looking for that lizard green convertible when my search was halted midway through when I nearly got run over by the very car I had been seeking.

"Hey!" I shouted, spreading my feet apart and shaking my fist high in the air, calling down ill luck and cow poo from the heavens to settle upon the driver of the vehicle. When the car door opened and it wasn't Alice, but her brother, Edwart, who came out, I was shocked. Surely the Half Devil would have been trying to kill me, and not her obviously-has-a-crush-on-me dimwitted Human brother.

"Bella!" He shouted, coming towards me to see if I didn't have any tire tracks on my shirt. He looked down questioningly at my cuffs, but looked back up when I ignored him. I had dressed in a long sleeved striped shirt and jeans for today, since the weatherman said it might snow later and I didn't want frostbite. Even with the supreme tolerance to the cold that I had had all my life, I still got frostbite. Believe me; I learned that the hard way, almost needing my feet to be cut off. "Are you okay!"

"Yeah, yeah." I said, waving him off. I guessed, since he was so dimwitted and blinded by my apparent awesome, he couldn't help but not see where he was going. I sent up a silent plea to the heavens, asking for the ill luck and cow poo to be taken back. Well, after a while. He _did_ almost run over me. "Just watch where you're going next time.

"I told you. You should have let me drive." Alice said, shaking her head as her brother hung his. "But noooooooo. You had to 'look cool so Bella would respect you'. Well, it looks like she won't be respecting you no-mph!" Here, Edwart jumped in, covering his sister's mouth with his gloved hand and giving me a wary look, trying to gauge if I had heard her or not. I pretended not to and looked at the watch on my wrist. He sighed and Alice pushed him off, expression giving off the acute feeling of her being miffed. "What was that for!"

"Nothing!" Edwart said, putting his hands behind his back and starting to whistle, walking coyly towards the building where our first class was held. "Come on, we shan't be late!" Alice and I shared a look, hers annoyed, mine slightly impressed, and started following him towards our class. I had to admit, my respect for the dude went up a bit after hearing him say "shan't".

Throughout our whole first and second class together, Alice had slept (and she snored, too), so I didn't get the chance to tell her what Meatball had asked me to. I had tried waking her up, even to the point of me leaning my weight fully on her and saying annoyingly to wake up over and over again, but to no avail. The girl wouldn't awaken. After a bit of trying I recalled that Meatball had told me that she had helped with the wards all night, so I gave up and decided to let her sleep. I'd just wait by her car after class.

At lunch, Alice slept on her food, looking like a little child. I had to admit, it was cute. I had a weakness for small and cute things, and at this moment, she was both. I stared absentmindedly at her while half-listening to Edwart speak and giving replies here and there, my eyes following the bit of pudding falling off of her nose only moment after she shifted her position.

Suddenly, the bell rang, startling Alice out of her slumber, and saving me from having to listen to Edwart prattle on about the people he met at his job. _Like I don't already know them. Small town, remember?_

"Huh! What!" Alice said, sitting up in her seat, eyes blinking rapidly to get the sleepy blur out of them. She looked down at her food and scowled. "Did someone eat my food while I was out?" Eddie chuckled and she turned to glare at him. "Was it _you_?"

I held back a snort and shook my head when she looked at me. "No, it wasn't him." She narrowed her eyes at me, but before she could accuse me, I cut her off. "And no, it wasn't me, either. Check your face." I picked up the napkin holder that was situated on our table and handed it to her. She took it from me and looked at her reflection. Her eyes widened comically and she immediately began tearing out napkins to clean her face off.

"Hold on!" I said, stopping her. "Don't kill trees, man, let me." I took her fork and proceeded to scrape the pudding, mashed potatoes, and shredded chicken with gravy off of her face. When I was done, I let her wet some napkins with my water bottle and she washed her face off the best she could.

I looked at my watch and my eyes widened. We only had a few minutes before we'd be late for class. I told the siblings this and they started to scarf their food that they had previously been ignoring for completely different reasons.

"EAT, PEOPLE, EAT!" I yelled, banging my fists on the table. I knew from experience that yelling at people to do something would make them unconsciously try harder. Works on Pops, it'll work on them.

I had thought my job done, when lo and behold, right before my eyes, Edwart started to choke. I immediately stood up and ran over to his side of the table and picked him up from behind, performing the Heimlich. I considered myself a master from the week I spent working at the Diner and passing by the sign on the wall many times a day, every day. Eddie spat out the chunk of chicken his esophagus had been harboring moments before, and I tossed him over my shoulder while he coughed. I grabbed my water bottle from Alice and she looked at me, amusement flashing across her face.

"We're off, Alice! Don't be late!" I shouted over my shoulder while sprinting out the doors. I was too focused on not dropping Edwart, and not running too much faster than I did before last Saturday to think much about why Alice would be amused when I took my water bottle, so I opted to forget it.

Throughout all of Biology, it was quiet (well, besides the teacher and various whisperings from the less studious students). It was nice, actually. Eddie was far too embarrassed from being carried the entire way to class on my shoulder, and the welcome we got when I entered the building wasn't helping things, either. Biology, being one of the subject where you memorize most things, wasn't of issue with me, so I stared into space for a bit before doodling on my note paper. When class was over, I looked down at my work with an appraising eye. _Huh. I didn't know I could draw._

The rest of the school day was spent with my mind wandering to the what's and if's about what will happen later today at the clearing. The ordeal at the lunch table had gotten me out of my funk, so I was feeling excited and raring to go. _Once my training's done, I'll be able to do anything! I'll even be able to fly!_ With these thoughts in my head, I skip-sprinted out of my last class and headed straight for Alice's car, hoping to beat her there or at least catch her before she left.

"Alice!" I called, seeing her about to get in her car. She stopped, one foot in the driver's side, the rest of her out.

"What?" She asked a confused look on her face. She looked slightly irritated for reasons I could only guess at (my guess was one of them started with an E), but I ignored it and stopped a few yards from her car, motioning for her to come closer. I didn't want Edwart to accidentally overhear us talking.

"Meatball said for me to tell you to come home with me, and then to meet her in that clearing from yesterday." I whispered, leaning down slightly so she could hear me better. The fact that she could have heard me even if I had whispered it from across the cafeteria while it was filled with screaming howler monkeys hadn't occurred to me.

"What's she want?" Alice said, rolling her eyes and shifting her weight on her feet. "I've got things to do."

"She said something about training me and flying." I said excitedly, forgetting to whisper. Okay, so I paraphrased. So what?

"What about flying?" I jumped, startled. I hadn't noticed Edwart sneak up behind his sister in my excitement, and now he had heard me talk of the… Untalkable.

"Nothing!" I said immediately, not letting another word be said. "I didn't say anything about me sprouting wings out of my back and flying!" Did I mention I don't handle stress well?

"Bella!" Alice hissed, glaring at me to shut me up. I mimed zipping my lips and took a step back, letting her deal with it. "Eddie, she didn't say anything. Now, she _did_ ask me to accompany her home and spend the day with her, so you go ahead and head on home."

Edwart narrowed his eyes, suspicion clear in his gaze. "Mom and Dad need our help, Alice. They told us to head home immediately."

"Just tell them Bella invited me to her house. I'm _sure_ they'd be _happy_ with my choice." Edward's eyes flashed from his sister, to me, and back to his sister. He grabbed her arm lightly and drew her away, obviously not aware of my jack-rabbit ears.

"Alice!" He hissed. "What are you doing? Stop befriending her!"

"What's wrong with me befriending her?" Alice asked, obviously irritated, if not by her stance, then her voice made it clear. "I can befriend anyone I want."

"Ew!" Edward said, shaking his head, possibly shaking images out of it. "You know I like her! I can't date my sister's best friend! That's just gross!" I rolled my eyes and decided to intervene before Alice played out what was no doubt going through her head.

"Alice, come on! I need to cook for my dad!" I said, raising my voice slightly so Edwart could clearly hear me.

"Coming!" Alice said, shooting her brother a smug look and coming to join me where I was standing. "See ya later, Eddie."

"Bye, Eddie." I said, waving goodbye at him, you know, just to be nice. He waved back, a dejected look on his face, before he slumped back to Alice's car and got in, driving away not too long afterwards.

I lead Alice to my house, put my bag up, left a note telling my dad I'd be out for a bit gallivanting with mythical creatures, then went out the backdoor and lead the way to the clearing we were at yesterday.

"There you are." Meatball said, walking leisurely up to my feet as I made my way to the middle of the clearing. "What took you so long?"

"Sorry. We had a little run in with her brother." I said, sticking a thumb in Alice's direction.

"He said I couldn't be friends with Bella." Alice scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Like that isn't the biggest load of bull I've ever heard."

"It does sound kind of odd." Meatball said under her breath. We stood in silence for a bit while Alice simmered and Meatball thought, before Meatball looked up suddenly and broke the silence. "Well, come on. Let's get started."

"So." I said, clapping my hands together and rubbing them. I never understood shy people did that, but I assumed it was tradition. "What do I do?"

"Firstly, you need to know how to harness your power." Meatball said, licking her paw. "Close your eyes and search for the power you felt yesterday, in this very spot." I looked down; just now noticing that the spot I was standing in had a body shaped burnt spot in the grass. _Huh_. I shook my head. _No. Focus._

I closed my eyes, imagining the burn in my throat, the feeling of giant hammers pounding my body, the burn my eyes felt when the light escaped them, the feeling of the power exploding out of my skin when it glowed, the feeling-

"Agh! It's not working!" I yelled after a solid ten minutes of imagining, plopping down on my butt, sitting Indian style. "Nothing's changing. Why isn't anything changing?"

"I do not know. Try again." Meatball said, looking at me neutrally. I groaned and put my head in my hands.

"I've heard tell of some Nephalem having their power being tied to their emotions." Alice said, looking at her nails and plopping down next to me.

"Really?" I asked, removing my head from my appendages and looking at her. "Could that be what's going on here?"

"Possibly." Meatball said, joining in. "It is very rare when a Nephalem has their power tied to their emotions, but it _is_ possible."

"Why is it rare?"

"Well, Angels weren't really made to feel emotions." Alice said, putting her hands in her lap and looking at me. "Since they weren't made to feel emotions, but learned to later on, their powers weren't made to be dependant on emotions."

"Humans, however, were created to feel and think for themselves." Meatball cut in. "It was only after dealing with the Humans did the Angels learn to feel. If the Nephalem are born with enough Human in them, then there is less Angelic power, and will be needed to be pushed by a more powerful driving force to awaken and be used, instead of simply being told what to do."

"Won't that make the Nephalem weaker in comparison to the others?"

"You would think it would, but it doesn't. It actually makes them considerably more powerful." Meatball said a proud tone to her voice. "Humans are rarely capable of the neutrality using Angelic power encompasses, which gives them little control, so the ones who use their emotions to control and harness their power tend to be the most powerful."

"What if it doesn't work?" I asked, suddenly feeling quite small compared to what I was being told. It was impossible for me to be something so special, when there were so many other people out there who were ten times more deserving of it than I. "What if I'm just a defect who can't use her power?"

"Neph, you can take all the time you need." Meatball said, putting one of her paws on my knee so as to comfort me. "And if we get in trouble before you're ready, Alice and I will keep you safe. Isn't that right, Alice?" I looked at Alice, but all she did was roll her eyes and look at her fingernails again. I sniffed.

"I have such great friends!"

**A/R: OKAY! THIS IS WHERE EVERYTHING GETS UGLAY! Well... Not until next chapter, but you get it. **

**OKAY! Let's recap! Angelic power is controlled by neutrality, for Angels were not created with emotion, so they couldn't use it to save their lives. Nephalem can't use their full power, because of the fact that Humans are naturally emotional, and rarely capable of _true_ neutrality. Nephalem with more Human in them than normal, _can_ and _do _use their emotions to drive their power, because there is not enough Angelic power in them for it to move on its own. It needs to be driven by something powerful, and emotion is the most powerful Human force out there.**

**Got it? Good. Isn't friendship nice? SEE YA NEXT CHAPTER!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	5. Ch 5: If You Give A Me A Muffin

**A/R: HALLO PEOPLES! WHATCHOO DOOOOEN!**

***clears throat***

**Anyway. I gotsta let you know, that Google Translate is my buddy, so don't get all up in mah grill if dah language is translated wrongly. It's not nice, you know?**

**Ah, and I've also gotta warn you that in this chapter, I finally give a reason for this story to be rated M. It's pretty gruesome, if you ask me. I'll put up a warning before it gets there. Well... GET ON READING!**

**Disclaimer: If you think that I own ANYTHING publicly recognizable in this story, then honestly, and I don't mean to be rude, here, but you're not that smart.**

**Chapter Five. If You Give A Me A Muffin…**

"Come on, Bella! Just a little bit more, I can feel the energy building!"

"I'm trying!"

"Calm, Neph. You do not need to exert so much power for such a small task."

"No, push harder, Bella!"

"Ignore her, Neph. _Calm down_. Neutrality is key."

"No! More _emotions!_ Push _harder_!"

"Calm _down_."

"Harder-"

"GAHH!" I screamed, dropping the rock I had been lifting and trying to crush with my power. It landed on my foot and I yelped, pulling it out from under the rock, grabbing it and hopping around in pain before hopping backwards onto the rock and tripping, twisting my ankle and bruising my butt bone all in one go.

"Owwww…" I moaned, closing my eyes and just laying on the ground where I landed, trying not to move so the healing process could take place quickly and painlessly. You see, having a Human body, and Angelic blood comes with its _benefits_ as well as its drawbacks. Since I have a Human body, my Angelic blood works my white blood cells faster so my body heals at a supernatural rate, whereas, if I had an Angelic body, I wouldn't get hurt unless five tanks had been dropped on me from hundreds of feet up.

"Neph-"

"Bella-"

"-Are you okay!" Both Meatball and Alice rushed towards me, saying almost the same exact thing in unison, before glaring at each other so hard I could feel it even with my eyes closed. I opened them and stared at the two, willing them to shut up.

"Look what you did!" Alice accused, visibly seething, she then continued in a mocking tone, using air quotes, "if you had just let up on the whole 'neutrality' thing and let her try out using emotions, we might have had a breakthrough right now!"

"Do not pin this on me, Devil!" Meatball stayed calm, other than hissing slightly at Alice when she mocked her, but you could tell she was miffed. "Angelic power is controlled by neutrality. We must first exhaust that option before going on to such farfetched ideas!"

Alice was about to retort, but I shot up into a sitting position quickly, stopping them both in their tracks.

"Would you quit it!" I said, not yelling, but definitely not talking calmly. "I don't need you guys fighting when I'm trying to learn to protect myself from evil beings who want to skin me and use my flesh as a coat while they eat Bella stew!"

I stood up and brushed off my butt, working my ankle in circles so as to make sure it was fully healed (it was). I walked around the large, _knee high_ rock I was supposed to be crushing with my power. Why was I doing something so hard at novice level, you may ask? Well, as Meatball would put it, to make my power grow at an accelerated rate, I needed to be doing higher level things than I'd originally been doing if I had awaken at a normal time. As Alice would put it, I should just suck it up, take it like a man, and not ask questions.

"Now, come on. It's late, and we have school tomorrow." I said lifting the rock with my super human strength and putting it back where I got it at the edge of the clearing.

Alice mumbled something about stupid cats and followed me while Meatball just appeared on my shoulder as I walked back through the woods towards my house. It was Thursday night, only a day left until Alice's parents "ask" me to help watch the house with her while they and Edwart go on a "spontaneous spa trip" in the next city over. I laughed when I saw the look on Alice's face when they chose that as their excuse to get her to have a sleepover. Alice just punched me in the shoulder.

When we got to my house, I bid Alice farewell and she waved silently while she got in her car and drove off, never to be seen again before tomorrow. I went through my front door, greeted my father, who was watching some kind of sport I didn't bother to pay attention to, and took a shower before going to bed.

**The Next Day.**

"Can you believe they're taking me to a spa!" Edwart complained, scooping applesauce into his mouth soon after. "I me'n-" He said, his mouth full, "-shi's da gi'l." He swallowed. "Shouldn't they be taking _her_?"

"I wouldn't go even if they paid me a million dollars." Alice said, sitting back in her chair and glaring at her brother. "You know that."

I rolled my eyes and finished my lunch; stealing Alice's while she was busy arguing with her brother.

"Yeah, maybe, but you know what Mom and Dad always say. You should act more girly, it'll make people like you better." He took another spoon of applesauce. "En'ted uh pepel be'n scur'd."

"What?" Alice asked, utterly confused.

"He said, 'instead of people being scared'." I translated, taking a bite of Alice's burger.

"How'd you know that?" Alice turned to me, raising her eyebrows inquisitively.

"W'ut?" I asked my own mouth full this time, ketchup dripping down my chin.

"And that answers that." She said, rolling her eyes and turning back to her brother.

"Bella?" Someone called from behind me. I turned around, confused. Who would be calling my name? I didn't associate with anyone outside my soccer team, and, me being the youngest, they were all graduated. "Bell- Oh, there you are." When the person came into view I noticed it was Mr. Manwell, one of the teachers who liked me. I swallowed and smiled at him, waving.

"Hey, Mr. M. What'chya need?"

"Bella, there's some guy asking for you just outside the Cafeteria." He said, sticking a thumb behind him towards the doors in the back. "Never seen him before. Is he a relative of yours?"

"I dunno. I'll go see, thanks." I said, standing up. Mr. Manwell nodded and walked away, going to eat his lush teacher's lunch. "I'll be right back, guys." I headed off towards the door, on my lonesome, when Alice suddenly turned up next to me. I raised an eyebrow at her in question.

"I feel something strange coming from the other side of those doors." Alice said, gazing suspiciously at the exit. "I should be around just in case something goes wrong." I shrugged and kept walking towards the doors, holding them open for her to pass through when we got there. I followed behind her when I was picked up in a crushing hug before the door could even swing closed behind me.

"BELLA!" The someone who picked me up shouted, twirling in circles while swinging me around. "Finally I get to see you! E 'stato così a lungo!" _It's been so long!_ He set me down, letting me get a good look at him. He was a huge, burly guy, muscles on his muscles, tall, maybe 6"6'. His hair was short, black, and slicked back with some kind of super strong gel. If his accent and the speaking in another language didn't give it away, his olive skin tone would have definitely told me he was from Italian decent. "Sorry I took so long to arrive!"

"What-" I tried to ask what he was doing when I was interrupted by Alice pulling him away, causing him to fly across the ground and into one of the trees at the forest's edge and the tree he landed on to break and crumble, falling on him.

"_Fallen_." She hissed, standing in front of me, her arms out wide. "What do _you_ want with Bella?" I leaned around her a bit to get a look at her face and gasped. Her eyes were completely black, a kind of smoky shadow coming off of them, leaving trails when she moved. She looked at me, and then back at the guy she threw.

"Well!" He said before pushing the tree off of him and standing up, wiping himself of debris. "How _rude_!" I snickered when he imitated a certain little girl from a certain T.V. show I used to watch when I was younger. He smiled soon after I snickered, leading me to believe he must be special like me if he could hear me.

"Answer my question, _Angel_!" Alice hissed again. I took a double take, looking at Alice in wonder. _Did she just say what I thought she said?_ I looked again at the guy by the tree who was making his way towards us. _He's an Angel? How cool!_

"Calm down, Dimidium." He said, lifting his hands up in the universal sign of harmlessness and putting on an innocent smile. "I know all about your help with Bella, quindi non c'è nulla da temere da me." _So there's nothing to fear from me._

"He's telling the truth, Alice." Meatball said, walking out from behind his head like cartoons do after hiding behind a pole and settling on his right shoulder. "He has met Neph before, when she was younger. He is the one who assigned me to her. He is, after all, my creator."

"Whaaaat?" I said, my eyes opening wide while Alice's arms dropped and the smoky shadow disappeared from her eyes. "_Really_?"

"Yes, really!" The Angel said, a face splitting grin adorning his features. "You probably don't remember me since it was so long ago, so introductions are in order! Il mio nome è Emmett De Luca"-_my name is Emmet De Luca_-"but you can call me Handsome." He wiggled his eyebrows, causing me to burst into laughter. He pouted. "Hey, I was serious!"

"Emmett." Meatball said, giving the Angel a stern look. "Get on with it. Why are you here?"

"Oh! Right!" Emmett said suddenly, his eyes going wide. He put his fist up to his mouth and cleared his throat, then turned to me with a meaningful look in his eyes. "Bella, I need your help."

"What for?" I asked, stepping out from behind Alice (who was unusually quiet), who I had just realized was still in front of me. "I can't really do anything."

"I have someone very important who I'm supposed to take somewhere, but I can't do it alone." Emmett said, looking a little embarrassed. "Sfortunatamente,"-_unfortunately_-"the place I'm supposed to be taking this someone is hidden from me, and _if_ I get there, well, I wont be able to go in."

"Why not?" I asked, confused. Alice stirred next to me and I turned to look at her, her wide eyes and awed face confusing me further.

"You don't mean…" Alice said her voice an awed whisper. "The Garden?" Emmett looked at her, slightly surprised, but nodded. "And… The one you are escorting… Is... Him?"

"Esattamente." _Exactly._ Emmett sighed. "I wish I could take him myself, but I need a Nephalem to do this with me, and you were the first one to come to mind."

"Wait, who is 'Him'?" I asked, still confused. "And if you need a garden, then there's one in my front yard you can use."

"Idiot." Alice said, shaking her head. "By 'Garden', he means the Garden of Eden."

"The Garden of… What? Really?" I looked at Meatball and she nodded, and then looked back at Alice. "Wow, okay. Who's 'him'?"

"He is our Messiah." Emmett said his voice reverent. "He is a descendant of the Son, who has been chosen to gather us Fallen and guide us back to our rightful place by the Father." Emmett suddenly surged forward, falling to his knees and grabbing both my hands in his, holding them to his forehead, his voice pleading. "Per favore, Bella, fai questo per noi, contribuire a salvare noi!" _Please, Bella, do this for us, help save us!_

"I-I-What?" I asked, trying to pull away, but not being able to. I was getting kind of scared, and my survival instincts were kicking in, telling me to run and run fast.

"_Please_ Bella!" Emmett looked up at me, the most pathetic look in his eye I've ever seen. "I want to go _home_."

"I…" I looked to Alice, my eyes wary and afraid. She put a hand on my shoulder as if to tell me to do what a wanted. "I…" I looked back at Emmett, who's face was hopeful, but quickly looked away, unable to stomach what I was about to do. "I can't." I said in a whisper. Emmett dropped my hands, defeat and misery carved into his features. I backed up, recoiling. How could I have done that? How could I have put that look on someone's face? _I had to_. I rationalized. _There's no way I could have saved someone. I couldn't even save my mother…_

"I'm sorry." I quickly turned around and ran into the forest, away from Emmett, away from Meatball, away from Angels, Demons, Messiah's, saviors, Gardens, Nephalem, everything. I ran until I felt like I couldn't run anymore, but not out of physical weariness, but mental. Flashbacks were wracking through my mind, blurring my sight, and causing me to stumble and trip. Flashbacks of my mother, of my birth mother. Flashbacks of fire, of blood, of death, of screams, and of my mother reaching for me as I ran away, calling my name, calling for help, but I couldn't help her. All I could do was run.

**~*WARNING! BAD STUFF, YO*~**

I stopped, breathing heavily at the edge of the tree line. Just across the street, was my house, but something was wrong. I could see my dad's car in the drive way, but I couldn't hear the T.V. All he does is watch T.V. when he's home. Suddenly, the wind blew in my face and I could smell something. I lifted my nose in the air, trying to smell better. _It smells like… Blood._

I dashed across the street, ignoring my now protesting muscles and bursting through the front door instead of opening it. I went straight to the living room and stopped in my tracks. I stood speechless at what I saw. The living room was trashed, with broken furniture everywhere and blood splattered on the floor and walls. The T.V. was in a broken mess in the corner, and my PlayStation 3 was on the opposite side of the room in just as many pieces, but that's not what caught my attention.

In the middle of the room was my father, on his knees, trying his best to staunch the blood flow from his left shoulder. About ten feet away from him crouched a hellish creature, black leathery skin, sunken black holes for eyes, horns spiraling out where its ears should have been, teeth jutting out from everywhere in its mouth, its tongue a black mess, licking everywhere and nowhere at the same time, constantly coating its teeth and around its mouth in a greenish foam that I'm not going to say didn't look poisonous. The creature was skinny, just skin and bones, but it was a scary sight, nearly making me turn and run. One fact made me stay. The fact that it was actively _eating_ my dad's left arm.

I stared at the sight, not completely registering the fact that my father's arm was ripped off and was being feasted upon by a creature of my nightmares. I took a step forward, splashing in a liquid that I didn't bother to identify, and the creature shot up and stared at me, its sunken holes locking with my frightened and horrified gaze. My dad turned his head to follow the creature's gaze and gasped out my name, causing the creature to turn to look at him.

"No." I said, watching the creature pounce in slow motion, towards my dad, willing it to stop. "No!" I said again, taking an agonizingly slow step forward, reaching out to stop the creature from reaching my dad. "NO!" I shouted as the creature landed on my dad, about to rip his throat out. I felt something building inside of me, and my cuffs glowed, emitting a blinding blue light that had the creature hissing and scrambling towards the wall, trying to shield its self from me. I roared, actually roared, and doubled over in pain as a searing hot tearing sensation ripped through my back and I could _feel_ something burst out of me. My skin felt as if someone was branding it all over, and my eyes burnt as if I had been staring into as sun that was ten times brighter than ours was. I could feel my teeth moving around, getting larger, sharper, I could feel the skin on my face shifting, and my bones becoming more angular, lighter, but stronger.

When all the pain died down, I felt powerful. I felt strong. I felt as if I could do anything. The creature got over its fright and roared back at me, pouncing in slow motion, aiming for my throat. On instinct, I stuck my right arm out to the side and felt an outpouring of power come from my hand. I looked over, at slightly faster than regular speed, and saw that a giant sword of bright orange and white fire had erupted from thin air and settled in my grasp.

I whipped my head around to look back at the creature that was still in mid pounce and roared again. Putting all my feelings of hatred, fearfulness, guilt, and sadness into my arm, I swung at the creature, my sword spitting flame in a wild display of uncontrolled power. The creature screamed and burnt to a crisp before it could even fall to the ground.

I stood there, slightly hunched over from the unfamiliar weight on my back, panting heavily. Suddenly, I heard screams. My head jerked up towards the sound and I dropped my sword. I could feel the power leave me and my body revert to normal as I came to a single revelation. My dad. He was on fire. _My_ fire. _My fire_!

"Daddy!" I rushed to my dad and tried to put the fire out, but to no avail. The fire wouldn't go out. "No! Daddy, no!" I screamed, tears streaming down my face as I bat at the flames that were slowly consuming him.

"Bells!" He said, swallowing his screams. He grabbed my hand the best he could, his face screwing up in pain. "Bells, its okay." I shook my head, tears flowing freely, blurring my vision of him. I lay on top of him, attempting to smother the fire out, the fact that I wasn't burning not registering in my head. My dad moved his arm to lie over my back, even as he slowly burned, he still wanted to be a good father and comfort me.

"Bella. You need to let go of him. Your keeping him here on Earth will only prolong his suffering." Someone said from behind me, putting their hand on my shoulder. "You need to pull his soul. He wont feel the pain if you do." I refused to move. I refused to even realize someone was even speaking to me. I felt someone grab my hand and move it to my father's chest. I instinctually clenched my hand and pulled away, but quickly let go when I felt the life leave my dad's body, leaving it limp. It quickly turned to dust underneath me and I just lay there, not moving, not admitting that my father was gone.

"Come on, Bella." Someone said, picking me up and gathering me in their arms, giving me comfort. I held onto them tightly and bawled my eyes out. First I lose my birth mother, then my adopted mother, and now my father. Did I even deserve parents? I probably didn't even deserve this person holding me. I tried to push away, but they held on tighter. That was when I realized who exactly I was holding on to, and what exactly was going on around me. Alice and I were standing in the middle of a raging house fire, the walls crumbling down around us, and sirens blaring in the distance. I tried to pull away again, but Alice wouldn't let me go.

"Alice, we need to get out of here." I said my voice raspy from breathing in the smoke without realizing it. She picked me up and we blurred out of the house, putting out some of the fire as we passed only to have it be swallowed again by the burning flame.

We stopped in our clearing, the one Meatball and Alice warded, and she set me back down, but didn't let go. We slumped to the ground and I just sat there, trying to be comforted, but not really wanting to be, if that makes sense.

"Is she alright?" Emmett asked, sticking his face in mine, trying to see. Alice pushed him away, not saying anything, just glaring. I shook my head and pushed away from Alice. She let me go this time and I turned to look at Emmett.

"Emmett." I said voice resolute. My face itched slightly because of the salt from the tears, but I didn't do anything about it, just stared into Emmett's eyes.

"Sì, Bella?"

"Are there going to be more of those if I go with you?" My voice was grave, but otherwise showed no emotion. Emmett looked taken aback, but answered anyway.

"That Demon? Sì, many." He was confused, I could tell, but I didn't do anything to help clear anything up.

"And what will we do if we encounter any?"

"Why, we will eradicate them, of course." Emmett, said, still confused.

"Then I will go with you." I smiled slightly, trying to make myself look normal, but failing miserably.

"What?" Alice said her voice the epitome of surprise. "You're going _with_ him!"

"Really!" Emmett asked, his entire being radiating happiness. "Di sicuro!" _For sure!_

"Yes. I'm going with you." I smiled again, this time it was real. I'd always loved making people happy, and his childishness was a welcome distraction to the events that had just transpired. _Hopefully, it'll all end up okay._

**A/R: Okay, so now you see why it's rated M. I didn't really have any time to go back over this, because I have to get showered before going to my birthday party(YES! PRESENTS AND BOWLING AND DONUT-CAKES!), so beware!**

**Anyway. I know it's short, but I seriously had NO IDEA how to continue it and make it it's usual length, so whatever. Hey, I've an idea! Hows about you guys buy me an electric guitar? How about one that TURNS INTO A SWORD! Cool? Okay, I'll be waiting at my mailbox.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	6. Ch 6: Did You Know Bread Makes You Fat?

**A/R: Hey, guys, it's me...**

**I guess now is the time I tell you about some kind of depressing thing that's happening in my life right now? Well... I have a stomach ache, and I feel like there's a metal rod being shoved into the back of my head and down my spine. Does that count? No? Oh well! Guess I'm too awesome for depression!**

**Disclaimer: Anything publicly recognizable obviously does not belong to me, wondrous I might be.**

**GET ON READIN', DUDES!**

**Chapter Six. Did You Know Bread Makes You Fat?**

"Are we there yet?" Alice whined, shocking me out of my thoughts. She was trudging a few feet behind us, slumped over in exhaustion. "I seriously shouldn't have come if all we were going to do is _walk_!"

"And _why _again are you coming, Alice?" I shook my head and sighed, depressed and annoyed. Not a good combination. That had been the fourth time she'd asked that and it was wearing on my patience. _We _have_ been walking for a day and a night, but that's no excuse for complaining my patience away!_

After… _That_ happened, we had met up in Meatball's clearing and had stuck around for a while to see what the repercussions of my actions were before immediately setting off so as to avoid being caught by the police and questioned about what had gone down in my house. Luckily my fire had been hot enough to reduce everything to ashes before the firefighters had shown up and after seeing Charlie's and Alice's cars in front of the house and hearing from people at school that she and I had ran off during lunch with some random guy, they assumed that we had been threatened and forced to drive home and were promptly taken care of by act of arson.

"Because I'm legally dead, that's why!" Alice shook her head and scowled. "I can't very well just show up back home, acting as if nothing happened! How would I explain anything!"

"Yeah, yeah, I get your point." I rolled my eyes and smiled slightly, sensing the opportune moment for a tease. _This'll make me feel better_. "If you keep complaining, I'm going to start to doubt you and assume something diiiffereent." She eyed me.

"Like what?" She asked after a while of staring questioningly at me.

"Like, you coming because I'm your friieeend and you caaare for meeee." I smiled widely and skipped ahead of her, but not before making sure to catch her brightly burning face.

"Wha-what! You're not- We're not- I don't have friends! I'm a Devil!" She spluttered. It was cute when she tried to defend her honor as a Devil when she _clearly_ had none. "We're _not_ friends!"

"Suuuuure." I looked back at her and smiled wickedly. "Just so you know, I consider us _best_ _friends_." I put extra emphasis on the words "Best" and "Friends", causing her to blush even more. _This is _so_ better than sulking!_ She growled and chased after me, failing to catch me due to the amazing dodging skills that I developed from my years as a forward. We ran around in circles around Emmett and Meatball, who I could _just_ hear if I tried.

"They sure are amabile"-_sweet_-"aren't they?" Emmett held Meatball in his arms and stroked her while chuckling at our antics.

"Yes, they are." Meatball replied, smiling to herself. "You can tell Alice obviously cares for Bella a great deal, but due to her upbringing, she won't admit it."

"We'll have to do something about that, won't we, gattino?" _Kitty_. Emmett said, no doubt scheming something.

"Although I do love torturing the girl…" Meatball glanced at Alice and me. We had stopped chasing each other and were talking about tacos and how much we loved them. "I don't think we should push the matter. It might just make her close herself off even more, and we need her help."

"Aww, you always rovinare il mio divertimento." _Ruin my fun_. Emmett pouted and set Meatball down. "Go run along now, gattino. We'll be stopping soon to rest, and you should teach Bella how to willingly go into her Forma Angelica." _Angelic Form_.

Meatball walked over to us and I immediately fell off of my rant about how chalupas with onions and green salsa were better than street tacos and gave her my full attention.

"What's this I hear about you teaching me something?" I asked excitedly. Anything could get me excited if it promised a good distraction from my thoughts. Meatball smiled and hopped on my shoulder.

"You were listening?" She purred, pleasantly surprised. Meatball had taken to lecturing me about watching my surroundings and keeping all my senses sharp for danger and such ever since… _That_ day.

"I… Hear… _Everything_." I said in a creepy voice, bugging my eyes out, hunching my shoulders, and bringing my hands above my head to wiggle my fingers in what I was sure was an ominous manner. Meatball chuckled and Alice giggled, but quickly stopped and cleared her throat when she realized what she was doing. She walked swiftly forward to catch up with Emmett and escape my overwhelming awesomeness.

"Indeed." After chuckling for a while, Meatball suddenly stopped, put on a serious face, and looked ahead. "This is a serious matter, though, Neph. It is highly important you learn to control yourself in your Angelic form. Although you do control your powers through emotions-" here, she shot a quick glare towards Alice, who was walking stiffly with her hands behind her back and whistling, "-_you_ do not want to be controlled by them." She looked back at me and smiled. "So! We will be training as soon as we stop for camp!" My jaw dropped. _No sleep! Is she serious!_ Seeming to read my mind, Meatball chuckled and added, "of course, Alice will be helping as well, so you need not worry _so_ much."

Alice stopped in her tracks and looked back at us, her face a picture of shock and fright. I smiled gloatingly at her. _Hah! I'm not the only one who doesn't get my beauty sleep!_

"You cannot be serious!" She squeaked, her voice shrill in protest. When Meatball just looked at her with a "when-am-I-_not_-serious?" face, her expression changed from fright, to downright horror. "B-but I-" Meatball just kept staring. "But I already know how to use my powers!"

"Which is exactly why you'd be the _best_ person to help Bella out. She is, after all, just a hatchling, and needs someone _experienced_ to guide her through the process of learning to _control_ herself." Alice went to protest again, but Meatball raised one of her furry eyebrows, causing the Devil's words to die in her throat. With a resigned slump to her shoulders and a defeated look in her eye, she turned back around and trudged forward, walking ahead of Emmett. I could definitely hear her grumbling.

A few hours later, Emmett stopped us in a clearing and declared it was "sleepy time for the little birdie" and told us to hunker down for the night. I was in the middle of getting my spot all comfortable and ready for me to sleep in by putting down leaves and fluffy stuffs and was lost in thought when Alice walked up to me with Meatball at her heels and cleared her throat.

I looked up at her and raised my eyebrow questioningly, silently asking her what she wanted, but she just sighed and motioned for me to follow her. Shrugging, I got to my feet and followed after her. We soon stopped in the middle of the clearing, and Alice turned to face me.

"So…" I said when all Alice and Meatball were doing was just staring unnervingly at me. _This sure isn't awkward…_ "What're we doing here, again?" Alice grunted and kicked the dirt.

"I told you she wouldn't remember. She never remembers anything unpleasant!" Alice grumped, crossing her arms. "I say we just leave her defenseless and let her die. If she's not going to try, then she's not worth the effort."

"Alice!" Meatball hissed, reprimanding. "Watch what you say! Bella deserves all the effort we can expend on her!"

"Yeah!" I agreed, putting my left hand in a fist on my hip and swinging an arm in front of me, one finger pointed up. "I'm worth all efforts! And I do _so_ remember unpleasant things." I "hmphed" and crossed my arms. _Sometimes I wish I wouldn't…_ "We're here to keep me from my wondrous sleep and replace it with rigorous training." I nodded my head, reassuring myself, but started to doubt my words when my companions kept quiet. I scrunched my eyebrows in self-doubt. "…Right?"

"We should get started." Meatball smirked; turning her head to address Alice and to hide her expression from me. I closed my eyes and shook my head. _Everyone's out to get me lately._ "Alice, we should start with you." Alice raised her eyebrow. "What do you feel when you transform?"

"Well," Alice said, cocking her head to the side and closing her eyes. "I'd have to say… Animosity." She opened her eyes and nodded her head. "Yeah, I feel angry. I feel hatred."

"Okay," Meatball looked to me. "What did you feel, Neph?"

"Uhhh…" I put my chin in my hand and thought. What did I feel before I did… _That_? I guess… I was… Scared. Scared I would lose my father, scared of that demon. I was also angry, angry at the demon for touching my father. And lastly, I was desperate, desperate to do anything to _save_ my father, to _protect_ him. _Fat lot of good that did me._ "I was scared, angry, and desperate." I said, ticking things off on my fingers.

"And what do your two reasons have in common?" Meatball looked at me, expecting an answer. I thought for a moment, putting my chin in my hand again and pretending to stroke my imaginary manly man beard.

"Oh! I know!" I raised my finger up in revelation. A light bulb appeared over my head and turned on, shining brightly to convey how awesome my brain was at that moment. "Extreme emotions!" I puffed out my chest and smiled brightly, proud of myself.

"Oh, the dummy has brains." Alice mumbled, rolling her eyes and sticking her hands in her pockets. Both Meatball and I shot her glares and she just looked at us innocently, rocking back on her heals. "What?"

"Yes, Neph, you are right." Meatball looked back at me, choosing to ignore Alice and her unwanted comments. "Based on these facts, your strongest powers are attained through intense emotions."

"So all I'll have to do is think of something really, really, _really_ sad and I'll become Super-Girl?"

"Well, I would imagine it would work with any kind of emotions." Meatball shrugged. "Sadness could be one of them, including anger, happiness, stress and frustration…" Meatball's explanation trailed off into her muttering, so I decided to speak up.

"Okay, so what do I think about?" I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck. I put my fists up and bounced on the balls of my feet. "I'm ready, lay it on me!" Meatball looked to Alice and motioned towards me with her head.

"Okay, for a first time, we should start small." Alice stepped forward, taking the reigns from Meatball. "Don't try to go fully into your Angelic Form at first, just try transforming one part of yourself." She paused for a while in thought. "Try your eyes, first. They are the most useful when identifying your enemies."

I dropped my hands and looked at her blankly, cocking my head to the side in confusion. She shook her head, her eyebrow twitching, and took a deep, calming breath, trying to gather patience, for I am told that when dealing with my wondrous self, you'll need a lot.

"Okay, close your eyes." I closed my eyes. "Now think of the other night." I opened my eyes and shook my head, staring pleadingly into hers, begging her to not make me think of what I'd done any more than I already was. She backtracked. "Okay, don't think of the other night. Think of… Something happy, something that made you feel pure joy. Maybe a moment when you were younger?"

I nodded my head and closed my eyes again, thinking of a moment when my dad, my mother, and I were sitting in the living room playing Sorry. I had had a blast, hitting their pieces across to the whole other side of the room and cackling manically when I knocked them back to the start.

When I conjured up the image, I felt something strange, yet familiar, building in my stomach, and I focused on it. Before Alice could say anything more, the power changed and bubbled, growing to an uncontainable level and exploding out of me in a bright flash, causing my eyes to shoot open, and my legs to buckle, making me fall to the ground. I felt that same searing hot ripping sensation on my back that I had felt when this had happened before, and I could hear the fabric of my shirt tear. I fell forward from my kneeling position and landed on my hands, screaming at the pain ripping through my body when I literally felt searing hot brands being pressed into my skin.

The pain stopped seconds after it had begun, but I didn't move. I stayed in the same position, just panting and staring wondrously at the grass beneath me. My sight was somehow… Enhanced isn't the right word, but it's all I could think of. It was changed. The colors were so vibrant, and I found, if I focused, it was like my vision tunneled and I could see even the tiny separate little scales that made up a bug's body in perfect detail.

"Bella?" Alice tentatively came closer and kneeled down in front of me, gently putting one of her hands on my shoulder. My head shot up in a fraction of a second startling her into jumping back, yelping, and landing on her butt. I cracked a smile and started laughing; my voice coming out sounding like Alice's had when she had spoken in The Tongue to me so long ago.

"Hah!" I laughed out, leaning back to sit on my heels. I held my stomach and pointed at her, still laughing. "You fell on your butt- Whoa. Why do I sound all weird?" I looked for Meatball, wanting to ask her, but she was gone. I shrugged and raised my hands in front of my face, while Alice grumbled, and looked at them. They were thinner, almost as thin as those guys' legs in Greece, but I felt stronger than normal. As if I could crush metal with my bare hands.

"Bella!" Alice shouted suddenly, angrily. After a while of me staring at my hands and arms, eventually going down to my legs, I looked up at her again, wondering confusedly why she was shouting. "I said just to change your eyes, not your entire body!" She stood up, scowling and brushed her clothes off. She always wore such fancy clothes for some reason. You know, dress shirts and pants, vests and ties, stuff like that. I was pondering whether I should ask her why or not when she flicked me in the forehead.

"Ow!" I held my forehead, feeling the bruise forming, but rapidly healing as well. _Wow, that's still a weird feeling. Don't think I'm ever going to get used to that._ "What'd you do that for!"

"You made me get my clothes dirty." She said simply, turning around. "Now come on." I crossed my arms and stayed in my place, refusing to follow someone who would willingly and knowingly flick someone so hard that an actual _bruise_ formed on their body. She turned around, scowling again. "Do you want to see what you look like, or not?"

"Yes!" I shot to my feet quickly, stumbled slightly at the extra weight on my back, and sprinted after Alice, catching up to her in seconds. We walked to the edge of the clearing, through the trees, and came to a large lake with ripples moving across the surface, showing that this lake would be a prime fishing spot.

"How'd you know this was here?" I asked when I was done looking around. I wouldn't have thought Alice would be randomly wandering around through forests when she had better things to do, hanging out with me being a good example.

"I smelled it." She tapped her nose and turned to me, smiling. "Go on, breathe in deeply and tell me you don't smell the water."

I breathed in deeply, paying close attention to the smells filtering through my nose. I could easily identify the smells of Alice, who smelled like peppermint, the dirt, and the grass, but there was another, different, scent that I vaguely remember smelling and not acknowledging back in the clearing, which I then assumed was the lake. It was unfamiliar to me because I had never been to a lake before, but it did smell slightly similar to the air when it was about to rain, just… Different.

"Oh, so that's what that smell was." I shrugged my shoulders and looked sheepishly towards Alice. "I've never been to a lake before, so I didn't know what it smelled like before now."

"Really?" She asked, taken aback. "Huh. We'll have to remedy that later, lakes can be quite fun." I smiled at her and she briefly returned it before shaking her head and looking back at the water. "Go on, look at your reflection." I walked over to the bank and looked down at my image. I gasped.

My body had almost completely changed. The baby fat that lined my face was gone, replaced with sharp angles, my eyes glowed a bright ethereal blue, and my teeth were sharp like a shark's. It looked like I could bite a steel cord in half they were so sharp. My face, my arms, my entire _body_ was lined with flowing markings that also glowed that same ethereal blue, and the writing on the cuffs around my wrists and ankles glowed as well.

I was crouching down, admiring my new glowing tattoos, when I noticed something white poking above my shoulder. I soon realized that it was two somethings sticking above both my shoulders and stood up, turning around in a circle, trying to see what they were.

"Bella, don't act like a dog." Alice snorted, shaking her head. She walked over to me and grabbed one of the somethings on my back causing a tingling sensation to shoot down through the something, down my spine, up my arms, and down my toes. She pulled the something out to the side and I could _feel_ it moving out, like it was an extra arm on my back or something. "Look at this."

I looked to my left and gasped. _I can't believe it! I have wings!_ I started jumping up and down and hyperventilating. _This is so cool! This is so cool! This is so cool! This is so-_ Suddenly, I was slapped across the face and fell to the ground, holding my cheek.

"Snap out of it!" Alice shouted, shaking her hand which I _swear_ was smoking. "We don't need you popping a lung from breathing too fast, now do we?" I got up slowly, my left eye tearing up from her slapping me so hard.

"No…" I shook my head slowly, pouting like a wounded puppy-ah, I mean, birdie.

"Okay, then. First, we need to get rid of that annoying glowing." Alice squinted her eyes and shielded her face from my mighty glow. I flexed a little and smiled. _I'm amazing._ "Okay, so, imagine all your power as a ball." I did so. "Now, imagine putting that ball in a box and closing the box." I thought for a bit, then imagined a Fun Box like on the Fairly Odd Parents and stuck it in there, then threw the cool Fun Locks on the box and set it in an imagined corner to forever lie in loneliness.

"That's better." Alice dropped her hand, looked at me, and nodded. I looked at myself, seeing the markings on my body were just black, looking like they were normal tattoos. Radical tattoos, I admit, but normal tattoos nonetheless. I looked back at my reflection to see my eyes, and noticed that they were no longer glowing, either, but instead were a very bright golden color.

I looked back over to Alice, smiled, and posed, one hand behind my head, one hand on my waist. I stuck my hips out comically and threw my head back, flinging my hair everywhere before saying in a super breathy voice, "I'm beautiful, aren't I?"

Alice was quiet for a while, before she started shaking slightly, then violently. She held her stomach with one hand and covered her mouth with the other, almost as if she was trying not to vomit and doubled over, falling to the floor, still shaking. I rushed to her side, no doubt a mix of worried and confused showing on my face, and turned her on her back so she could see me.

"Alice, are you alright!" I blurted, not knowing exactly what to do. "Should I go get Meatball? I'm gonna go get-" Suddenly I was interrupted by a belt of gut-busting laughter spewing forth from Alice's mouth causing me to jump back in shock.

"Hahahahaahaa! You-you said-you said! Ahahahahaha!" She laughed, rolling around on the floor, holding her stomach. I just sat back on my arms; blinking rapidly, trying to shake the shock of seeing Alice- _Alice_, think about it! - rolling around on the floor _laughing_. "And that pose!" She said, rolling so she could see me, the tears in her eyes glistening slightly in the moonlight. Seeing her so happy and care free caused me to join her in her glee (but mostly it was from the fact that she didn't even notice she was ruining her duds by rolling on the floor like that).

"Ahhhh…" Alice slowly fell out of her laughing fit, only a few chuckles escaping now. She flopped on her back and splayed her limbs out in every direction, smiling. "That was nice." I nodded, agreeing and she turned her head to look at me. "Do you feel better now?" I looked at her quizzically, my own chuckles still subsiding.

"What do you mean?"

"Ever since _then_ you haven't been acting normally." Alice rolled on her side, facing away from me, and rested her head on her arm. "I was kind of worried." I looked at her for a while, unblinkingly, shocked that she would admit to being worried about someone other than herself, before I decided to say something.

"Wait, wait. Am I hearing right?" I stuck my pinkie finger in my ear, pretending to dig a blockage out and free my clogged hearing. "Was that _the_ Alice Mason, greatest, _unfeeling,_ Devil in the entire world, say that she was _worried_ about me?"

Alice just laid there for a while before letting loose a mumbled "yes".

I sat there for a while, shocked even further, before smiling warmly, touched and honored that she decided to open up a little to me and show some emotions. I was about to say something else when she sat up quickly and turned around to face me, a stern look in her eyes.

"Don't you tell anybody, Bella! Or else!" I sat there, shocked, before raising my eyebrows at her in silent challenge and she looked surprised.

"Or else, what?" I asked, crossing my arms and putting on an impassive face.

"Or-or else I'll…" She looked away, trailing off into thought, before looking back at me with a wicked grin on her face. She dug in her pocket and pulled out five pieces of my guilty pleasure: butterscotch. My mouth watered at the sight. "Or else I'll eat all this delicious butterscotch. All. By. My. Self." She punctuated each of the last four words by waving the candy in front of my face, causing the smell to waft up to my nose. I made a swipe for them, but she pulled away quickly and put them back in her pocket. "You won't tell?" I nodded hurriedly and she pulled out a piece of candy and tossed it to me. I caught it and stuck it in my mouth, cursing myself for letting slip my only weakness after only the third day of knowing her.

"I wasn't planning on telling anyway." I said, getting up. I looked down at her and could tell she was about to get angry, so I stuck my hand out to help her up and struck before she could. "So! How do I get out of this form? I mean, it's cool and all, but I don't really want to be lugging around these _awesome_ wings everywhere where everyone can see and get uber jealous for." Alice rolled her eyes, took my hand, and hoisted herself up.

"Well, first you have to withdraw the power form your body, which you've already done, then let trickle a _tiny_ stream of power throughout your body and imagine yourself changing back to normal."

I did as she said and I could feel my wings shrinking on my back and eventually melting into the skin. I could feel my bones growing slightly and becoming thicker, more fitting for my Human body, and my skin tingled slightly as my brandings/tattoos faded away. My eyes burned slightly as they returned to normal, and my eyesight changed back to my normal hawk-vision.

"Cool!" I smiled and looked from my body up to Alice. "I was expecting that to hurt!"

"Well, it wouldn't have hurt you changing the _first_ time if you had listened to me and done as I'd _said_." Alice rolled her eyes and motioned for me to follow her. We started walking back to the camp and she continued, "It only hurt because you expended _too much power_ and the changes _exploded_ out of you, instead of happening _gradually_ and with _no pain_."

"Well, I couldn't very well help it!" I defended. "At first I felt the power and it felt, well, normal, then it started to… I don't know, _bubble_ inside of me and grow huge without me _doing_ anything!" Alice looked at me, dumbfounded.

"Really?"

"Yeah!"

"Huh. That's odd." She put her hands in her pockets and stared forward, getting lost in thought. I sighed._ Can't even apologize for wrongly yelling at me…_

By the time we got back to the clearing the adrenaline of becoming Super Girl had worn off and I was dragging my feet, I was barely able to walk I was so tired. I looked around, forcing myself to keep my eyes open, searching for Meatball, but I couldn't find her. I soon gave up and collapsed on my sleeping spot and fell asleep, ignoring the rock that was jabbing into my right thigh that I had neglected to clear away before Alice approached me.

**The Next Day.**

"Bella, svegliati." _Wake up_. I groaned and rolled over, flinging my arm over my eyes to block out the sun peeking through my eyelids, when all of a sudden, someone started shaking me. "Svegliaaaaati!"

"Get off of me Emmet…. What time is it…?" I croaked my throat dry with sleep.

"È mezzogiorno,"- _It's noon-"_Bella, we need to get going!" Emmett shook me again, knowingly forcing me to smack him in the face to get him to stop. "Ow! Qual è stata che per, Bella!" _What was that for, Bella!_ I yawned and sat up, blinking blearily at him, smiling slightly at his child-like pout.

"You knew what you were doing." I said, stretching my arms and standing up. I scratched my butt and smacked my lips, trying to get the gross sleep taste out of my mouth. Having no water around wasn't helping, and I wasn't making that trek to the lake just to drink from a fish's bathroom, livingroom, and kitchen. I looked around, then back at Emmett. "Hey, where are Meatball and Alice?"

"Scanning the area, making sure it's okay for us to leave the forest and go into the city without anything following us."

"Following us? Who would be following us?"

"Demons. No doubt there are Devils who have heard of you already. There hasn't been a new Nephalem in cinquant'anni,"- _fifty years_ -"so you are quite a breather for the occasional bored Devil." Emmett stood up and looked to his left where Alice and Meatball, who was riding on the latter's shoulder, broke through the tree line looking a bit disheveled.

"Where were you guys?" I asked when they got close. "You look like you've just been ruffed up or something."

"There was a small demon running around and we had to get rid of it before it went back to get reinforcements or tell about our whereabouts." Meatball jumped off of Alice's shoulder and walked over to rub herself against my ankles. "Do not worry, we took care of it."

"'We'!" Alice protested a look of disbelief clear on her face. "_I_ did all the work! All _you_ did was sit there and tell me to get rid of it!"

"Yes, well, supervising is important." Meatball retorted.

"Yes, well, defeating a second demon without even being able to transform is important, too." Alice shot back. Meatball and Alice locked gazes, their death-glares far surpassing my own. I scooted over closer to Emmett.

"Hey, what's a 'second demon'?" I whispered, not daring to interrupt the match of wills going on just a few feet away.

"Oh, it's a mid-level demon. Like a mid-level boss on a video game." Emmett whispered back, leaning in to get closer to my ear, but keeping his eyes trained on the two volatile forces in front of us. "There are three types of demons that Devils employ, third degree, which is like the expendable grunts no one cares about, usually used for scouting, second degree, which is like the captains of those grunts, the ones who tell everybody what to do, who are about the strength a Nephalem or Dimidium is in their Human forms, and first degree who equal the power of two Nephalem or Dimidium. They're the big bad boss dudes of the demon hierarchy, just one below the Devils who created them."

"Isn't that kind of a big jump in power?"

"The Devils didn't want any of the lower levels banding together to take down their superiors. Hence, the power jumps."

I was about to ask another question, when all of a sudden Meatball barked out that we'd be leaving now and stalking away. Alice stared after her with a look of triumph painted on her face and followed, whistling all the way. Emmett and I followed after, keeping quiet for a bit before I decided to ask my question.

"So, where are we, anyway?" I asked, looking around. I snorted. _As if I could tell anything by looking at trees._

"Colorado Springs, Colorado!" I looked at Emmett, disbelief clear on my face. _How is that possible! We were just in Washington last night! …Weren't we? _He just burst into roaring laughter and hit me hard on the back, causing me to stumble forwards a tiny bit. "And we're on our way to Alice, Texas!"

**A/R: And, yes, before you ask, Alice, Texas IS a place. I didn't know that until just an hour and a half ago. Odd, huh? Works perfectly for my story, though, doesn't it! DOESN'T IT!**

**Oh, and another thing, before you ask. Exactly HOW they got so far from Washington in two nights and a day is not for me to say just yet. You'll be told next chapter. Worry not, it is not some fantastical reason, just a normal, mundane, FANTASMICAL REASON! OH YEAH !**

**Read, Review, send me some pain killers, and go to bed!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	7. Ch 7: Bread makes you fat!

**A/R: Why, hello there people, it's nice to see you, too. Where have _I_ been, you ask? Why, I've been out to the cinemas with my Aunt, brother, and cousin to see the very _nice_ film Battleship. It was quite the flick, you should go out with your own group to watch it.**

**In all seriousness though, guys, I don't know about this chapter. I had a weird feeling about it, and I think I did a bad job on Jasper. Oops, you weren't supposed to know that! Please, ignore what I just said and read the chapter on your own! There're no more characters being introduced! Just read!**

**Disclaimer: Anything publicly recognizable makes you fat, and therefor, why would I want it?**

***Updated* Be sure to re-read the part with Jasper in it!**

**Chapter Seven. Bread makes you fat?**

"I need to pee."

"Hold it, we're almost there."

"No, I need to peeee!"

"Gah! Fine!" Alice swerved hard to the right and pulled over on the side of the road, startling the cars behind us and eliciting several honks of annoyance.

I sped out of the passenger seat and into the thick tree line, desperate enough to use the bathroom that I was more than happy to go woodsman. You see, ever since we had woken up in Colorado, we had been going at it by car, and I always have to use the restroom during a long car ride. There's no hope for my bladder when it realizes it's in a car. As to how we got to Colorado, well, Meatball told me that Emmett picked us up and ran us here in the night, which is also the reason why he's conked out in the back seat snoring like a giant bear during hibernation with Meatball on his stomach.

"Relief!" I said after coming within sight of the car. It was a giant green jeep Emmett had gotten for us in Colorado, color courtesy of Alice.

"Hmph. You could have held it." Alice was leaning on the passenger's side waiting for me, her arms most definitely crossed and her eyes most definitely rolled.

"I think not. You try holding it in for hours on end and _not_ exploding. It is quite tiring." I walked up to her and crossed my own arms, trying to match her bored and slightly irked look, but failing miserably when a huge smile broke through and onto my face. The edge of Alice's mouth quirked a bit, but before it could become a full fledged smile she turned and walked back to her own side and got in, turning the car back on.

"Come on, we need to get going if we're gonna get there before dark." She said to me as I got in and buckled up. She went to put the car in drive, but I stopped her before she could, staring at her. She stared back for a bit, a questioning look on her face, before I motioned with my head to her seatbelt and she groaned. "Come on, Bella, I don't need it! It's just tedious!" I stared at her. "Ugh, fine!" She looked down at our hands, and then looked away, blushing slightly. "Just let go of my hand."

I looked down at her hand, not realizing mine was still on it, and pulled it back quickly, blushing slightly as well from embarrassment. She coughed and buckled her seatbelt then turned her blinker on and pulled back on the road to continue our journey to Alice, Texas. I snickered.

"Alice."

"What?"

"We're going to be inside you, Alice." I looked at her, a great big smile on my face and she scowled, trying her darndest to keep her eyes on the road and not glare at me. Although she doesn't care if _she_ gets in a wreck, she _does_ care if someone _else_ gets in a wreck. _She's such a softy_.

"Bella, would you just drop it?" Her shoulders slumped in defeat, so I relented. _No need to torture _her_ too much._

"Alright, alright," I opened my window and rested my elbow on the sill, putting my head in my hand to stare out the window and occupy my mind with the wonders that could be hiding outside in the farmland that we were currently going past, when suddenly I saw the standard "Welcome to Alice" sign that every city has. Alice looked at me and smirked.

"Told you we were almost there." I glared at her while she just looked back at the road, still smirking.

"If you'da asked me, I would have said we were at Alice all along." She looked back at me and scowled, before looking back at the road so as to not run anybody over when I stuck my tongue out at her. I went back to staring out the window when suddenly, the constant snoring coming from the back seat stopped.

"E 'vicino, lo sento." _He's close, I can feel it._ Emmett leaned up and stuck his head between the front seats, staring at the road in front of us. "Keep going straight." Alice complied and after a while of just sitting still there, he reached up and grabbed the steering wheel, forcing us into a right hand turn, leading us into a cemetery. "He's here."

An explosion of tombstone in front of us caused Alice to swerve and brake, making the car roll and Meatball to yowl. When the car settled we all crawled out, Meatball hanging onto Emmett's shoulder.

"Bwahahahahaa! You cannot escape me!" A raspy childlike voice broke through the dust and smoke that was brought up from the car crash. "Run! Run like the baby you are!"

"It's coming from over here!" I whispered behind me to Alice and Emmett before jumping off the side of the car and running around to the other side of a mausoleum. I skidded around the corner, ducking just in time to not be hit by a knife that was flying through the air straight for my head.

When I looked back up, I paled at the scene before me. There were two figures in front of me; one was a guy around my age with wavy blond hair that went just to his ears hiding behind a tombstone, there was a slight weird golden glow coming off of him, but that's not what had me stunned. Just a few yards away from him was a small demon, about the size of a 10 year old with sandy blond hair. Short horns poked out its forehead and its eyes were that shadowy black that Alice's were before. Its teeth were sharp like mine were after I changed, but its skin was black and leathery and its ears were pointed like the demon's was before. It wore clothes, though, and there were black leathery wings like a bat's sticking out of its back causing it to hover in the air. In front of it were several knives made of fire floating in a line. The demon was rapidly taking knives and throwing them and the knives were just reappearing, waiting to be thrown.

"Bella!" I looked to my left and saw Alice and Emmett, with Meatball still on his shoulder, racing towards me. I held a finger up to my mouth, telling them to be quite lest the demon notice us, but it was too late, for the demon's head snapped to where I was standing, not able to see Alice, Meatball, or Emmett since they were still hidden by the mausoleum, and started throwing knives rapidly at me. I dove behind the mausoleum, just able to dodge the onslaught of fiery weapons, and the demon roared.

"Who are you!" It shouted, its voice raspy, but still child-like. "Don't think you'll be able to save this guy! He's mine!"

"Guys, it's another demon!" I whispered, hoping the demon wouldn't notice that there were more people with me if I kept my voice low.

"It's not a demon." Emmett said, also keeping his voice low, but not whispering. "It is another Dimidium. A young one, but still dangerous."

"Come on ooouut!" It taunted. "It's no fun if you _both_ hide!" I looked back at the side of the mausoleum, wondering why it didn't just come after us, but shook my head and looked back at Emmett.

"Can't you do something about it?" Alice asked, peeking around the corner of the mausoleum, but jerking back right away when another knife hurtled straight towards her. "You're an Angel, aren't you?"

"Well, I'd like to, but I'm a _Fallen_ Angel." Emmett shrugged his shoulders regrettably and put on a sheepish smile. "Almost all my power was stripped from me. Add that on with the fact that I can't harm Humans, a Dimidium being _half_ Human, and I'm pretty much useless against him."

"So what does that mean?" I asked. We all turned to Alice, who was the only one with enough power and control over herself to do anything, and she looked at us, confused.

"What?" We all just kept staring at her until realization dawned. "Oh. You want me to do it?" We kept staring. "Well, I don't want to." She crossed her arms, but we kept staring until she finally relented with a sigh. "Fine… You said he was just a young one, right?" Emmett nodded his head.

"Can't be more than a few months."

"Alright, I'll be right back." Alice got up and walked around the side of the mausoleum that the Dimidum wasn't watching. Emmett, Meatball, and I followed her and stuck our heads around the corner to watch what was going on.

Alice was sneaking up behind the Dimidium, who had his eyes trained on the spot where he last saw us and his arm up, ready to throw the three knives he had in his hands at the first sign of someone moving. She moved from tombstone to tombstone, staying still whenever she would make a noise, but the Dimidium would never look over, for he was far too distracted by the two hostages he had hiding from him.

She got to one of those rather large memorial things, which was ironically in the shape of an Angel, and climbed on top of it to get herself level with the hovering Dimidium. Just as she was ready to jump, the elbow of the statue broke off, causing her to fall and catch herself with her left hand. The Dimidium immediately turned and shot knives at her, which she barely avoided by swinging around to the other side of the statue and scrambling to the top.

"So there's more!" The Dimidium let out a laugh, looking around on the ground where he had expected Alice to fall, only to not see her. "Where are you little Humans-" He was cut off by Alice jumping off of the top of the stature and landing on him, causing him to plummet to the ground, knocking the wind out of him.

"How'd you-" He rasped when he got his breath back, only to be interrupted by a punch to the face.

"Change back." Alice commanded after he stopped talking. He looked at her in shock.

"You punched me. And it hurt. How'd-" Alice punched him again, causing his lip to bleed. Emmett and I ran out, Emmett going to where the wavy haired dude was hiding, and me going to Alice.

"Change back." She leaned down to where they were nose to nose and hissed out, "_Now_." The Dimidium whimpered and slowly started to melt back into what looked like a ten year old boy with sandy blonde hair and bright blue eyes. Looking at him, you could tell he would be attractive in a few years, if, you know, he survived that long, and with the way Alice was looking at him, he probably wouldn't.

"Okay, I changed back, get off of me!" He said, pushing at Alice and scooting out from under her. She got up and let him stand and he spit out some blood and looked at her, still a little amazed. "How'd you hurt me? You're just a Human!" Alice chuckled and held out her hand which changed into that of a Demon's with fiery claws at the fingertips. The boy took a step back, startled, and Alice pulled her hand away, changing it back.

"Still think I'm 'just a Human'?"

"That's-No, I'm the only one!" He looked up at Alice, then at me, then back to Alice. "Right?" Alice snorted.

"Clearly, you're not." His eyes flicked to me again, and Alice rolled her eyes. "No, Stupid here isn't like us. She's different."

"Hey! I resent that!" I crossed my arms and glared at Alice. "I could totally beat you at a Trivia war."

"Please, ladies," Emmett said, approaching us with a big smile on his face and his hands up in the universal sign for "we mean no harm". "Let's not argue in front of children. We should set a good example."

"Now, who is our impromptu attacker?" Meatball asked, jumping from Emmett's shoulder to mine.

"Woah!" The kid stepped back in shock, childlike glee shining in his eyes. "It's a talking cat! I always _knew_ animals could talk!" He surged forward and grabbed Meatball from my shoulder. She yowled in protest, but he ignored her and started turning her around in his hands and examining her, probably looking for batteries.

"Put me down, Dimidium!" She hissed, only to be ignored.

"I knew it, but they said I was crazy and to stop having fantasies! I knew it!"

"Maybe you should hand her to me for now." I stepped forward and grabbed Meatball before she could claw the kid's face off, and set her back on my shoulder. The boy pouted, causing my heart to melt and I pet his head and cooed at him. Did I mention I had a weakness for cute things?

Alice grabbed my hand and pulled me away from the boy, who was smiling, and placed me behind her.

"Let's not forget this _boy_ was just trying to kill us." She eyed him and scowled when he smiled at her.

"What's your name, child?" Emmett knelt down in front of the boy, still towering over him even on his knees and put his hand on the boy's shoulder.

When he moved, he revealed the blond haired guy who had been hiding behind the tombstone when we arrived. He looked a bit disheveled, and had various scars on his face and hands, but was overall fine except for the fact that he was holding his arm and it seemed to be bleeding. I narrowed my eyes at him when I noticed how he was staring slack jawed at Alice. _I officially don't like this guy._

"Name's Gareth Alexander." The boy said, re-capturing my attention. He poked his thumb to his chest and gave a charming smile, which seemed a bit demented in the light. Aaand the fact that we were in a cemetery. "Who're you guys?"

"Il mio nome è Emmett DeLuca." Emmett said, sticking his thumb into his own chest. "That's Bella, Alice, and the cat is Meatball."

"Meatball?" The boy snickered, covering his mouth with his hands. "What kind of name is that?"

"An amazing name." I crossed my arms and hmphed. The boy looked at me and smiled again, dimples showing and my heart melted a second time. _I can't stay mad at him, he's just so adorable!_

Alice looked at me, then at the boy, then at me, and narrowed her eyes.

"Why are we introducing ourselves? This kid tried to kill us!" She threw her arms up in the air then pointed at Gareth, her eyes filled with anger. I noticed this and put my hand on her shoulder to which she calmed down almost immediately.

"Why _were_ you trying to kill us?" I asked, eyeing him. His face suddenly turned serious and he turned around to look at the blond haired guy who was _still_ staring at Alice.

"My instincts told me he was a threat, and was to be terminated." His eyes turned that shadowy-smoky black again and he growled, tensing up as if ready to pounce. Emmett put a hand on his shoulder and he visibly relaxed, but his eyes didn't change back. He looked back at me and smiled dementedly. "Then you showed up and my instincts told me you were a threat, so I had to dispatch you, as well." His smiled dropped and he looked curious. He sniffed the air and his face became confused. "Why do you smell different?" He looked at Emmett and back away. "You smell different, too." He looked to Alice. "Why do they smell different?"

"They're Angels." Alice looked back at me. "Well, she's only half, like you and I are half Devil."

"What?" Gareth looked shocked. "That's what I am? I thought I was some kind of bat!" Alice looked at him, her face telling him he was an idiot, but she shook her head instead of saying anything.

"So is that the guy we're here for?" Alice looked at Emmett and gestured towards the blond guy behind him. Emmett looked behind him, remembering who was there, and shot to his feet, his eyes lighting up in glee.

"Yes! This is il nostro Messia!" _Our Messiah_. The blond guy snapped out of his trance and looked around at us and smiled bashfully but thankfully.

"Ah, hello. Th-thanks for saving me, and might I say, that was an absolutely beautiful tackle on your part, miss." The blond guy had a kind voice and a little bit of a southern accent, but not much. He smiled shyly at Alice who just looked at him like he was an idiot. "I used to play a little bit of football back at my school and my teammates would do well to take a few pointers from you."

"Uhh… Thanks?" The blond guy smiled wider and looked to the rest of us, his eyes resting on Gareth causing him to lose his smile somewhat.

"I'm embarrassed to say, but I was actually rather frightened when a random boy suddenly burst into some kind of demonic creature and started attacking me," Gareth mumbled a small apology and the guy's smile turned soft. "But I can understand if he was forced to. I have been attacked before by different creatures, and they seemed unable to stop themselves, either."

Gareth smiled at the guy, his dimples showing again, and the guy patted him on the head, ruffling his hair.

"You really forgive me?" He looked at the guy hopefully, and the guy just chuckled and nodded his head.

"Ah, I should probably introduce myself." He said, catching his mistake. "My name is Jasper Whitlock," he took Alice's hand and laid kiss on it before looking up to lock eyes with her. "And it is a pleasure to meet you."

"Ah-uh, likewise." Alice blushed and pulled her hand away from him, hiding it behind her back and subtly wiping it off. Jasper didn't seem to notice and looked back at the rest of us. He put on an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, but I will be seeing y'all later." I was about to ask where he was going, but his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he promptly passed out. Emmett caught him at the last second to keep him from hitting the ground.

"What's wrong!" He looked at me worriedly, thinking I'd have the answers. Obviously, though, I would since I'm the Human (well, half) and he's the Angel. I looked at Jasper, noticing the pool of blood at his feet and the fact that his right arm was soaked with blood.

"I believe he has passed out from a loss of blood." I deduced, pretending to wear a monocle and smoke a pipe. I threw away my imaginary accessories and went to help Emmett carry Jasper. "We should probably get him to a Hospital or something."

* * *

"Okay, so all you have to do is put your hand over his wound, and funnel energy through your arm and into him. The wound _should_ close."

Instead of taking Jasper to a Hospital, we instead brought him to a secluded place in an abandoned farmhouse and decided to try and teach me how to heal wounds. Emmett had extreme faith in my abilities, whereas Alice and Meatball weren't so sure, and Gareth and just followed us because he wanted to spend time with Alice. _I don't know why, but the idea of all these people surrounding Alice is bugging me._

"Focus, Bella." Emmett took my hand and pressed it to the out-cold Jasper's cut, which was so big I had to use both my hands to cover it. I was kind of grossed out because it was still bleeding, but I powered through, telling myself I'd been through worse.

After a while of trying to get my power out of its Fun Box in small amounts and not have it explode like it had done the last time, my hands started to glow. I stuck my tongue out of the side of my mouth in concentration, and the glowing slowly spread to encase Jasper's arm. I watched in wonderment as his cut slowly started to stop bleeding, then began to close.

"That's amazing!" I shouted, jumping up from my kneeling position by the mattress on the floor that held Jasper. "I'm going to go wash my hands and then tell the others how awesome I am!" I ran out of the room, to the barrels that conveniently had rain water in them, then behind the house where Alice and Gareth were discussing all things Devil-ey.

"Hey, guys, guess what!" I told them excitedly, plopping down in between them on the ground. Alice rolled her eyes and Gareth smiled at me, showing his dimples, and literally _forcing_ me to hug and coo at him.

"You healed Jasper?" Alice asked, forcing me off of Gareth and scooting a bit closer to me. _Probably to stop any more attempts at hugging the life out of Gareth._

"No, I-" I was about to tell her what I did, but I realized that she had guessed right on the spot and I crossed my arms, sulking. "Yes, I healed Jasper. You know, you're supposed to let _me_ tell the good news, not guess it." Gareth joined me in my glaring at Alice and she looked taken aback.

"What? You told me to guess!" She tried to defend herself, but she was undoubtedly guilty and was to be punished, but Meatball randomly appeared between her and us, startling Gareth so much he actually fell backwards and rolled down the hill we had been sitting on the edge of.

He crawled back up not soon after and instead of what I expected, which was something along the lines of anger, he looked excited.

"You alright, Gareth?" I asked him when he got back to us. "That was quite a nasty fall."

"Yeah, I'm fine." He said, flashing his dimples, blinding me with cuteness. "Ever since I turned twelve it's taken a lot to hurt me."

"Wait. Wait, wait, wait, _wait_." I held my hands up to halt all movement and speech. "WAIT a minute." I looked at Gareth, suspicious. "You mean to tell me, that you're _not_ ten?" Gareth looked at me, rage clear on his features.

"Of _course_ I'm not ten! I've not been ten for over _two years_!" He stood up and clenched his hands next to his side. "It's 'cause I'm short, isn't it! Isn't it!" Before I could answer, he turned around and stomped away, grumbling to himself about stupid teenagers and being short.

"Umm… I'll… Go talk with Emmett." Meatball sprinted off towards the house and I looked to Alice, flabbergasted, to which she just chuckled.

"You know, I think I can relate to him." She lay back in the grass and put her hands behind her head as a pillow.

"Oh really? How so?" I laid back next to Alice and she turned to look at me, a humorless look on her face.

"You really don't know?" I looked at her blankly and she sighed. "I'll be 18 in less than a month and I have people mistaking me for a 14 year old." I got up to a sitting position and gawked.

"No way! You're seventeen! I thought you were just crazy smart!" Alice looked at me wide-eyed and sat up as well.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"_Really,_ really?"

"Yeah, _really_, really."

"Wow, you're dumber than I thought." Alice lay back down on the grass and closed her eyes.

"Hey! I resent that!" I protested, but Alice just snored, pretending to sleep. I huffed and lay back down as well and decided to take a nap. It was much warmer in Texas than Washington, so I was comfortable sleeping through the night outside. I just hoped nothing found us while we were out here.

**A/R: H'otay. So. Please tell me just how horrible a job I did on this one. I've never written anything like this before (and by "this" I mean Human interaction period), so please, if your going to make critistic (from now on, that is officially a word) comments, please make them constructively critistic.**

**Yes, I am going to beg you to review, so please do it. I'll play the I'm so hungry I'm shaking card, if that will work. SEE YA NEXT CHAPTER BROHEEMS!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	8. Ch 8: Scott Pilgrim R0X0RZ!

**A/R: *sits at computer, doing random things before randomly glancing behind me and jumping out of chair, holding heart and breathing hard* WHOA! WHERE'D YOU GUYS COME FROM?**

***clears throat***

**Why, hello there, readers! How are you? Good! How am I? Why, I'm well. Except, you know, this big cut on my arm that's healing agonizingly slowly and ITCHES LIKE CRAZY!**

***huffs***

**Anyway, I have some things to say. I, personally (or for business reasons), have no idea how to perform CPR. Well, I have an IDEA, but I don't know for sure. There IS a scene where someone performs CPR from memory (remember! This person has a SUPERnaturally good memory!), and I got my info from some kind of weird-o website with dancing pink elephants in tu-tus. My POINT is, is if you DO know how to perform CPR, and my information was wrong in some way, or I wrote it incorrectly in some spot, then I implore you, PLEASE correct me. Send me a PM, review (I prefer the second option), I don't care, just CORRECT ME, PEOPLE!**

**Well, now that that's out of the way, happy reading! Oh, and God bless you if you sneezed.**

**Disclaimer: If there is anything publicly recognizable within this chapter, or this series as a whole, then I am saying RIGHT NOW(!) that I do not own it. Wellllll... Nah, I don't.**

**Chapter Eight: Scott Pilgrim R0X0RZ!**

I remember very little of my past before my life in Forks, Washington. One thing I know for sure, however, is that I lived in a different country, because everyone spoke in a different language. I was so young; however, that I cannot place the language nor the country, but I remember the people.

There were people of every shape and size, short, tall, hairy (_lots_ of hairy people), and muscular, but one stood out among them all. That one was my mother. I remember her being the most beautiful of all the people, often seeming as she were glowing in the sunlight. She would attract many suitors, since my father had passed away while my mother was pregnant with me, but would always turn them down, saying she wanted to spend all her time with her little bundle of happiness, which was me.

I was unusually bright for one as young as I was, and was walking and talking before I even reach six months (which baffled the doctors. I remember them coming to my house to watch me go about my every day life and study me, possibly trying to gain the same sort of success from others my age by emulating everything my mother did to raise me up until that point.). I could coherently hold a conversation at the age of one year. My mother would always compliment me on how intelligent I was, and how like my father I was, but would never tell me anything about him, which I remember got on my nerves, but I would be easily distracted by whatever else she brought up, for I was only a child.

Not too much later in my life, when I was about two years old, was when the holes in my memory would start appearing. I can't remember much on a normal day, perhaps a few scenes with my mother, meal times, mostly (I was a hungry child, and did so love my snow pears), but nothing apart from that. I would always get a headache when consciously trying to recall something, so I wouldn't try.

Every once in a while, though, I would unwillingly get small flashes of horrible scenes, fire burning in a field, blood shooting through the air to land next to, if not on, me, people screaming. The worst one, though, was of my mother, lying on the ground in our vegetable garden, in a pool of blood, screaming at me to run. I would protest, cry my eyes out, but I would run. As soon as I saw the man show up, the man with the fiery eyes, I would run fast and hard, barely missing the sight of my mother being pounced upon by hundreds of little demons, tripping along the way until I finally passed out against a tree.

The next thing I remember, the man with the fiery eyes had me, and was chanting something, when a bright light flashed, and I was somewhere else entirely, in the middle of a street with cars going everywhere. The next thing I remember is hiding in an alleyway, running from stray cats and dogs, trying to get food to eat. I was like that for a long time, avoiding other people, when someone found me and put me in an orphanage. Not long after my mom and dad, my adoptive parents, picked me up and took me in.

I didn't like my adoptive parents at all for the first year of my life with them, often times outright refusing to even look at them, let alone speak to them. It wasn't long, though, that I fell in love with them. They were very good parents, even trying to grant my wish for a younger sister at the age of seven. They knew they couldn't have children because of some kind of blood clotting in my mother (which is why they adopted me), but they tried anyway, just to appease me. It wasn't long before we realized that my mother and the child would not be surviving the attempt.

After their deaths I would refuse to get close to anyone but my father, forming a strong bond with him, but alienating myself from everyone else. The other children, though, they didn't tease me or anything; they just ignored me because I ignored them. They all but idolized me when I discovered my talent at sports, but soon shunned me again when I _still_ ignored their attempts at friendship, with the lone admirer straggling by every once in a while.

It was these things I was dreaming about that night in Alice, Texas. I tossed and turned throughout the night, mumbling incoherent words, only quieting down I found something warm to hold onto and felt something envelop me, which my subconscious mind recognized as a blanket, and a warm rock.

I slept well afterwards and didn't wake up until a bright flash burned my eyeballs through my eyelids, forcing my mind into consciousness.

"Wuz goin' on?" I mumbled, my mind too preoccupied with fighting against the crustiness on my eyelids to pay attention to anything else at the moment, including pronouncing my words.

My eyelids slowly cracked open, letting the blinding morning sun in to sear my brain into nothingness. _Why again was this a good idea?_ I shook my head and blinked rapidly until my eyes got used to the light and I noticed that something was breathing on me neck. I looked down to see what it was, only to engulf myself in a forest of black spiky fluffiness.

Another few flashes went off and without the protection of my eyelids, it caused me to let go of whatever I was holding onto and block my face with my arms, roll around on the grass, entangle myself in the blanket, and scream in pain.

"GAAHHH! MY EYES! WHYY?" I kept my arms over my eyes until the pain died down and slowly peaked between my elbows to see Emmett standing there with a digital camera and a face splitting grin.

"Aww, you rovinato la foto!" _Ruined the photo._ Emmett dropped the camera from his face and pouted, making me smile, and my still sleep ridden mind to forget what just happened.

I dropped my arms and sat up, looking over to my left, expecting to see the big rock, but instead seeing Alice sit up, slowly blinking the sleepy haze out of her eyes and looking around. I watched as she looked at Emmett, then at me, then at the blanket, then at Emmett again. I could practically see the wheels turning in her head until a look of complete horror dawned on her, along with the revelation of what just happened (which had yet to dawn on me).

"Emmett!" She looked at Emmett, her face filled with quiet rage, anger dripping from every word she spoke, and got up to a standing position. "You did _not_ just take a picture of us sleeping, _right_?"

I looked over to Emmett, my own wheels turning as I watch him squeak and take a step backwards, hiding the camera behind his back in the process.

"No?"

It was about then that I realized that the rock I had been hugging up on in my sleep wasn't a rock, but was indeed a sleeping Alice. I stared wide eyed at her and she glanced at me and adopted a defensive look.

"What? _I_ didn't do anything!"

I got up and moved as fast as I could behind Emmett, grabbing the digital camera from him and going back to where I was previously, but standing. I mashed the buttons, not knowing how to work the thing, cycling through all the pictures (most of which were of him and a pretty blonde woman) until I came to the ones he just took of us.

"Looks like you're snuggled up quite comfortably to me." I snickered, glancing at Alice, then back at the photos.

"What!" She exclaimed, rushing over to me and trying to take the camera. I pulled it out of her reach, using my five inch difference to my advantage. "Let me see!"

"Uh-uh!" I said, dancing away from Alice, keeping the camera raised high in my hands. "You'll just destroy it, and _I_ want a copy!"

She huffed and stopped chasing me, which I took as a good sign. I turned my back to her and started looking through all the pictures Emmett took, which was more than just three, when Alice touched my shoulder.

"Hey, Gareth's coming, and he looks especially cute today."

"Where?" I immediately turned around, looking for him, ready to pounce on him and hug him to death, only to not see him anywhere.

Just as I was about to complain to Alice for lying to me, she grabbed the camera from my hands with a "yoink!" and crushed it between her hands which she transformed, and burned the pieces.

"Hey!" Emmett and I yelled at the same time.

"That has my only pictures of Rosie on it!" Emmett sped past me, knocking me to the side a bit, and kneeled on the ground, picking up the ashes of the camera and trying to smush them pack together in his hands. He looked back at Alice, his eyes tearing up. "Why would you do that!"

"Oh, uh… Sorry." She said, suddenly uncomfortable. I didn't blame her; no one knows how to deal with crying women and children. "I'll… Get you a new one?" Emmett sniffed, some tears escaping his eyes. "And we can go get more pictures of 'Rosie'?"

"Davvero?" _Really?_ Alice nodded and he jumped up onto his feet and hugged her, spinning her in a circle. "Thank you, thank you! Oh, grazie, la mia piccola Alice!" _Oh, thank you, my little Alice!_ He set her down and started skipping back to the farmhouse, singing all the way a song about going to see his Rosie.

"Hey!" Alice shouted after him, not really angry, but trying to be. "Don't call me little!"

I snickered and she looked at me, actual anger in her eyes this time.

"Oh, is it that time already?" I looked down at my right wrist and put my left hand on my head, absolutely distressed. "I need to get going!" I looked at Alice, who was still angry, then started running towards the farmhouse after Emmett. "Nice seeing you, we should do this again some time!" I could practically feel her rolling her eyes at me before she decided to follow at a normal pace.

* * *

Later that day, after a breakfast of stale crackers and a can of peas we found in the cupboards, we were sitting around Jasper, trying to figure out what to do next. Gareth was sitting in my lap, talking to Alice about Devil-ey things, Meatball was out doing some information gathering, and I was talking to Emmett about Angel-ey things. At the moment, he was trying to explain to me how to sense the Garden of Eden, but I wasn't getting it.

"Look, Bella, all you need to do is reach out your senses all around the world, and look for the biggest concentration of Holy power!"

"Emmett, I don't even know what Holy power looks like, let alone feels like, and you're asking me to _somehow_ look _everywhere_ in the _entire world_ at _once_?" I hugged Gareth and set my chin on his head in a huff. "I don't think so."

Emmett sighed dramatically and looked at Jasper, who was finally stirring. He laid there for a while, obviously awake, before shooting his eyes open and propping himself on his elbows to get a better look at everything. He looked around, his eyes searching all of our faces, hyper aware of everything, until he relaxed, probably remembering who we were and what happened the night prior.

"Hey, guys." He said, sitting up all the way and rubbing the back of his neck (which was probably sore. That bed _did_ look uncomfortable). "What's for breakfast?" We all shrugged and looked at each other, knowing Emmett ate the last of the crackers, before Gareth got up and left the room. He came back not long after with a jar of peaches and a fork, and handed them to Jasper.

"Here, I saved these for you. It's a thank you for forgiving me." He looked down sheepishly and crawled back to my lap when Jasper took them, thanking him with a smile and a nod, and dug in.

"Hey, are there any more?" I whispered to him when he sat back down. He smiled wickedly and nodded his head.

"Yeah, follow me." He got back up and left the room, leading me through the living room, into the kitchen, out the back door, and down a caved in hole that looked like it could have been the entrance to a cellar at one point in time.

"This is probably why they abandoned the place." Gareth said, sliding down the hole slowly, so as not to hurt himself.

"Oh really?" I asked, following him, though not as slowly which consequently lead to me falling forward and scraping my knee through my jeans.

"It's a bad idea to have cellars or basements here in Texas because of how much the ground shifts." Gareth helped me up and led me through some twists and turns of debris until we got to the back of the cellar. He looked at me, his wicked grin back in place. "Luckily this thing stayed intact."

My jaw slackened and I stared in awe at the giant hoard of preserved fruits going from corner to corner, lining the entire wall. I slowly turned my head to look at Gareth, who was basking in the glory of having found such a treasure, when I surged forward and picked him up in a hug, swinging him around in a circle.

"Dude, this is amazing!" I laughed out gleefully, still spinning him in a circle. I set him down and kissed him on the top of the head, smiling like a fool. "_You_ are officially my bestest buddy."

Gareth smiled at me, blushing slightly, but with a face full of pride.

"Here, let me go back to my house, I can get mine and my sister's old backpacks." Before I could question him about having a sister or advise him not to go back to his house, he rushed off and out of the cellar, leaving me by myself. I grabbed one or five jars, dropping some in my haste to get out of the cellar and stop Gareth, but by the time I got out, coming out with only _one_ jar, he was already changed and flying in the sky off in the distance.

I shrugged and walked back into the farmhouse, heading back to the bedroom where everyone else was. On my way, I opened the jar of cinnamon apple slices and started eating them, making a mess all over my face which Alice didn't hesitate to point out.

"Bella, stop eating with your hands! You've got juice all over your face!" Alice walked up to me and snatched my jar of apples out of my hands. She grabbed the fork which was forgotten sitting in an empty peach jar, wiped it on Emmett's shirt (to which he protested, only to be ignored) and started eating them herself.

"Hahh!" I protested my mouth full of apples. "Ha's mie!" Alice looked at me confusedly and _swallowed_ her food.

"What?" She let out, setting the apples down on the floor next to her as she sat on a chair. I swallowed and sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall, and Alice shook her head at me. "Bella, don't speak with your mouth full. I swear I feel like your mother sometimes."

_My mother?_ My thoughts immediately went to my dream and the man with the fiery eyes. I didn't know who he was before, but I now assumed he had something to do with all these demons and Devils and such. The one thing I was worried about the most, though, was that if he wanted me when I was still a child, then he'd probably want me even more now that I'm one of the strongest Nephalem in existence.

"Hey, Emmett," I asked, breaking the solemn silence that had fallen since I sunk into my thoughts. "What does a Devil look like?" He shifted in his seat slightly, obviously upset at the nature of my question.

"Well, Bella," he leaned forward in his chair, resting his elbows on his knees and putting his chin on his laced fingers. "They are very sneaky things, always changing their forms, so I cannot describe them in perfect detail." He shifted slightly and cleared his throat. "They usually take on the forms of innocenti," - _innocents_ -"be they animal _or_ Human. One thing for sure for recognizing them is their eyes." I perked up at this and leaned forward, having previously slumped back in my spot. "When they are close to realizing their goals, the pure glee it brings them ignites a fire in their eyes and their power rises to unknown degrees." Emmett tapped his temple. "Always be on the look out, and always look at the eyes."

I sat back in my seat, staring into space with one thing on my mind. _If he was a Devil, then why didn't he kill me?_

"Wow, that's worrying." Jasper spoke up. I looked at him, having forgotten he was there since he'd been so quiet. "How are we supposed to fight them?" He looked at Emmett and raised his eyebrow. "Do you have some sort of cool Angel power?"

"Well, I-" Emmett was about to speak, when Meatball appeared coming out of under the bed Jasper was still sitting on. She dropped a piece of paper that was rolled up in her mouth and sat down, smiling at us.

"Hello, everyone! I have great news!" She purred and nudged the piece of paper over to Alice's feet. She picked it up and unrolled it, snickering at whatever she saw. "Emmett has a price on his head and is being hunted by all the bounty hunters around!"

"How is this good news!" Emmett exclaimed, shooting forward in his seat. Alice snickered again and tossed him the re-rolled piece of paper, which he caught deftly. He unrolled it and looked at it, aghast. "This doesn't look like me!" He cried, turning the piece of paper so we could see it. "I'm much more handsome!"

I looked at the picture, and I had to agree, the sketch artist did a horrible job on Emmett. His face was much too fat and mean looking, plus, it showed he had a scar across his face. I chuckled. Mr. Manwell was always one for theatrics.

Meatball looked at Emmett, unleashing her big I'm-adorable-don't-you-just-want-to-pet-and-coo-at-me eyes. "I didn't say _that_ was the good news."

Emmett glared at Meatball for a second before scowling and folding up the wanted poster and sticking it in the back of his pocket, mumbling about cats and how they should be clearer in what they say. Meatball smiled at us again and turned to me.

"The _good news_-" she glanced at Emmett, "-is that I found someone for Neph here to Guide."

"That's great!" Emmett shouted, standing up in his chair so fast it fell to the ground with an echoing clatter. "We should get going immediately!" He looked around. "Where's Gareth?"

"Ah, he went somewhere to grab some backpacks so we could bring some food with us." I got up and looked out the window, seeing Gareth off in the distance rapidly getting closer. "He's on his way back."

"That was a good idea. I should commend him for that." Meatball mumbled under her breath before jumping onto my shoulder and wrapping her tail around my neck. "Anyway, we should get down to business."

"You know, I'm looking forward to this." Alice said an interested look on her face. She propped her left foot up on her right knee and leaned back in her seat, crossing her arms. "I've always wondered how a Nephalem Guided someone."

"Uh, guys?" Jasper spoke up, a sheepish smile on his face. "I don't mean to be rude or anything, but why is there a cat speaking? And what do you mean by 'guide'? Is there somewhere you need to take someone?"

"Ah, I'm sorry, sir," Meatball said, jumping down off of my shoulder and bowing at Jasper's feet. "How terribly rude of me. My name is Meatball and I am the Spiritus Dux for the young Nephalem in your presence." Jasper looked at me and I waggled my fingers at him, slightly embarrassed. "I also hadn't meant to keep you out of the loop. When a Nephalem Guides someone, then he or she is actually _guiding_ a soul out of its dark place and back onto the path to Heaven."

"Wow, that's amazing!" Jasper exclaimed, his face alight with excitement. "Can I help? I would do whatever you tell me to!"

"Uhh…"

"Please! I won't mess up or anything!"

"Uhmm…"

"Please!"

"Sir," Meatball said, coming to my rescue. "I do not think it wise that you accompany her on this particular mission."

"What? Why not?" Jasper asked, disappointed.

"Neph here is young, having only been aware of her powers for a little over a week. This fact means that this is her first mission. It would not be smart for her to take someone with her when she herself has no idea how to go about it. Maybe after she's done it a few times you can join her."

"Oh, come on, please?" Jasper said the pleading look on his face borderline pathetic.

"Sir, I don't think-"

"Oh, come on, Meatball, two heads are better than one. He could probably help me." I nudged her with my foot, causing her to fall over and glare at me. "Oops. Sorry."

"Fine," she huffed, probably wanting to cross her arms, but being unable to because she's a cat. "He can help." Jasper pumped his arm, silently "yes"-ing, but Meatball shook her head. "I won't be helping you, though. Other than keeping demons off of you, you're on your own for this."

"Deal!" I said, smiling. I leaned over towards Jasper and we fist bumped just as Gareth came in the front door, still in his Devil form.

"Hey, guys, I've got the backpacks!" I walked up to him and ruffled his hair as he changed back to normal and handed me a bag.

"We're gonna go fill them up. Meet you outside." I turned around and left the room, missing the glare Alice shot Gareth and the smirk and the raspberry he retaliated with.

* * *

About and hour and a half later we were in another car driving to who knows where. Gareth was sitting in the front seat (it was his first time so he was super excited) with Meatball, Emmett was driving, and Alice, Jasper and I were in the back seat with Alice in the middle and Jasper and I on either side of her. Alice and I were spending our time playing tic-tac-toe.

"I got you again!" Alice whooped, dancing in her seat as I threw the note pad we were using as a game board down in disgust and crossed my arms.

"Hmph. I don't understand how you keep winning! My trap is flawless!"

"Bella, you do the same thing every time. All I have to do is go in the corner."

"…Always worked on my dad…" I huffed and she rolled her eyes.

"It is a pretty well known tactic, Bella." Jasper said from the other side of the car. "I used to babysit a kid who used that trick every single time and would stop playing if I didn't willingly fall into it." I shook my head and picked up the notebook, turning to a new page. "How about we play hangman instead?" I nodded my head and started to draw the hanging tree.

"Where are we going, anyway?" Gareth asked Emmett from up front.

"I don't know, ask gattino." Emmett motioned towards Meatball with his shoulder, not able to take his hands off the wheel because it was his first time driving on the right side of the road. I know, I was freaking out at first, too, but he's actually pretty good.

Gareth looked to Meatball and she shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't know I'm just following the path shown to me. Ah, Emmett, get off up here." Emmett put on his blinker and got into the lane for the off-ramp.

"Path?" Gareth stroked Meatball, causing her to purr and arch her back.

"Mmm… Yes. We Spiritus Dux are here to help our charges along with their duties. We're used as sort of a transmitter, or a GPS for finding lost souls who need Guidance."

"That's cool." Gareth said absently, lost in thought. "So we don't get a… What was it, again?"

"Spiritus Dux." Meatball supplied.

"Yeah, that. Half Devils don't get them?"

Meatball sighed and shook her head.

"I do not know. I wasn't educated in the nature of Devils and how they treat their young. You'd be better to ask Alice back there." Gareth nodded his head and sighed, putting his head in his hand and leaning on the armrest by the window. Meatball cocked her head and looked at him. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…" Gareth sighed again and shook his head. "I'm just… Nevermind."

Meatball eyed him again, but shook her head and let it go. "…If you say so."

* * *

About another hour and a half later (could have been longer, I wasn't paying attention), Gareth, Jasper, and Alice were dozing off while I was doing my best to stay awake so I could make sure Jasper's head didn't loll where it shouldn't.

"Okay, pull in here." Meatball said, stepping up onto the dash so she could see out the windshield better, her jostling waking up Gareth.

I looked out the window, curious as to where we were, but before I could ask Gareth spoke up, his voice showing he was still half asleep.

"I've been here before…" He said, yawning and rubbing his eyes. "My sister took me fishing when I was eight. That was when she…" He awoke fully, sitting up in his seat and clearing his throat. "It's Lake Austin," he pointed out the windshield as we came to a stop in a parking lot. "And that's a boat rental place."

"Hey, what's that by the water?" I opened the door on my side and stepped out, squinting my eyes to try and get a better look. "There's something floating."

I stuck my head back in the car and shook Alice and Jasper awake, telling them to get out of the car.

"What's going on?" Jasper drawled out, wiping some drool off of his face and looking around.

"I'm gonna go check it out, guys. Be right back." I got back out of the car and started jogging to the lake bed. When I got there, I kicked out of my running shoes, rolled my pants up, and waded in. My pants-rolling was in vain, however, because I slipped and fell forward into the water in a deep spot going under, almost the first step I took.

"Bella, are you okay!" I heard Alice yell from the car, though it was slightly muffled from the water in my ears.

I stuck my hand in the air in a thumbs-up to reassure them, then swam up and shook my head, dislodging the water in my ears and blowing the grossness out of my nose. Once my ear and nose canals were clear, I continued to swim my way towards the something in the water which was starting to look more and more like a person.

"Oh my gosh, guys, this is a person!" I yelled, splashing enough that the whole lake would probably be dried up by the time I got out in my haste to get to the body, hoping it wasn't a _dead_ body. When I got to her, for it _was_ a her, maybe a year or two older than me, I grabbed her and pulled her up so her head was out of the water and slapped her cheek, trying to get her to wake up. "She's not waking up!"

"Okay, bring her back here, Bella!" I heard Emmett yell. I looked back at them, not sure what to do, but nodded anyway and did my best to swim back to shore with her in tow.

When I got back to where I could stand up waist deep, I picked her up in my arms and ran the rest of the way to dry land. I set her down on the grass and kneeled by her, my hands shaking in fear of her being dead.

"Wh-what do I do now?" I asked, looking around. Everyone was just standing there, staring, so I waved my arms frantically to get their attention. "Hello! What do I do!"

"CPR, right?" Gareth asked, tapping his chin. "And someone should call 911."

"I got it." Jasper pulled out his cell phone and walked away to make the call.

"Okay, I saw this in a movie once." I took calming breaths, but my voice still shook. "First, you uh-you check their breathing…" I tipped the girl's head up and put my ear to her mouth, freaking out even more when I found she wasn't breathing. "Th-then you…" I fell silent for a while, taking a bit to remember what was next in my moment of panic, but remembering nonetheless. "Then you put your hands here… And here…" I looked down at my hands, comparing them to the picture in my memory, and moved them slightly so they were in the exact center. I thanked God for my amazing memory, moved until I was kneeling in the right position, and started doing chest compressions.

After my second round of compressions and checking her breathing, she started coughing up water. I turned her on her side and patted her back, completely shaken by the experience, but relieved she wasn't dead. When she was done vomiting water and coughing up gross stuff, she rolled back on her back and just lay there, staring at me.

"Thank God you're alive!" I breathed out, sitting back on my heels and letting out a long breath. Now that I wasn't concentrated solely on trying to save her, I realized I could hear sirens coming closer. I looked behind me and watched as the ambulance skidded to a stop and paramedics piled out with a stretcher.

"What's- what's you're name?" The woman on the ground coughed out.

"I'm Bella, what's yours?" I asked, smiling slightly. She tried to return my smile, but started coughing harder, curling in on herself. About then was when the paramedics arrived, telling me I was generally awesome and asking me to leave the rest to them. They quickly put her on the stretcher and moved her into the ambulance, driving off not long after.

I stood up and turned around, about to address Meatball, but was tackled into a hug by a flying Alice.

"Well, not that that wasn't nice, but what was that for?" I looked down at her quizzically as pulled away. She looked up at me, slightly teary-eyed, but shook her head and smiled.

"I'm just-relieved, that's all." She took a step back and wiped her eyes. "And, uh, good job and all that. She was in danger, and you were the only one who could do anything." She scowled slightly. "Makes me feel useless."

I smiled back, proud of myself and flexed my arms, forming various poses.

"Don't feel bad, Alice. I am the awesomest person here, right? Tell ya what, next time there's a drowning damsel, you can save her." Alice laughed and shook her head, turning back to look at everyone else.

"Does anybody know who she is?" She asked, looking directly at Jasper and Gareth. Jasper looked back at her, his face a question mark while Gareth instead shook his head and walked back to the lake bed, starting to splash in the water for unexplainable reasons.

"What? I don't know who she is." He shrugged his shoulders and shook his head, showing he had no idea. "Why would I?"

"Well, you and Gareth _are_ the only ones here from Texas." I pointed out, pointing my finger up and looking at him as if it were obvious.

"What? Really?" He asked, surprised. "I just thought your parents were Yanks!"

"And what is that supposed to mean?" Alice raised her eyebrow and crossed her arms, tapping her foot. Jasper looked at her as if he had been caught committing a crime. Or calling her fat. You never call a woman fat. "Hello? I'm waiting."

"I-I uh… I didn't mean…"

"Didn't mean, _what_ exactly?"

"I-I didn't mean-" Just as he was about to continue to fumble along his way down the road of apologies, Gareth came running back and stuck a wallet in my face, yelling at us to "look what he found".

"What's this?" I asked, leaning back from the wallet so as to not get anymore gross lake water on me and grabbing it out of my face. I glanced at Alice, who had forgotten Jasper and turned towards me, Jasper, who was shooting a thankful look towards Gareth, and Emmett and Meatball, who were chuckling at Emmett's "savior's" ill luck, before gingerly opening it.

"I found it stuck in the mud." Gareth said jumping up and down next to me so he could see what was in the wallet. "I think it's that lady's wallet."

I immediately looked in the bill fold and my jaw dropped. Inside were a whole bunch of hundred dollar bills, and one or two fifties.

"Whoa! This woman's loaded!" I said, pulling out the soaking wet money and showing it to everyone. Meatball glared at me, forcing me with her gaze to put the money back (like I wasn't going to do it already…) and everyone else rolled their eyes.

"Just tell us who she is already!" Alice said impatiently, tapping her foot.

"Alright, alright! Yeesh!" I turned the wallet around and pulled out the photo I.D., flashing it to everyone with an exaggerated wave. "See? I'm looking!" I turned the card back around and looked at the name reading it aloud. "Her name's Angela Weber."

**A/R: Hey guys! You like? Gareth has a sister, and Angela's drowning! Yaaaayyyyy...**

**Who IS this mysterious someone who may or may not be in the story later! WHOOOO? Oh, and if she IS in the story, then she won't be for a while. Oh, and she owns a falcon. 'Cause falcons are WICKED COOL!**

**Review, favorite, alert, eat this soup that doesn't quite have enough seasoning in it for me, and enjoy!**

**-Peace, G.C.**

**P.S.**

**I just realized! The first time I had a short chapter, I had a long chapter right after it! I did that just now, too! Go me!**


	9. Ch 9: All My Pets Have Ear Mites, Even

**A/R: HALLOOO, ZEBAH NEYBAH!**

**Welcome back to my story! You're probably thinking right now, "Hey, wait, shouldn't WE be saying that to YOU?", and might I say, you have quite the point! I know I usually try to keep my between-update time to about a week and a half, but I had good reason for not being present in the authoring world, hear me out.**

**Well, the Saturday before last, my brothers had JUST gotten back from a trip to Iowa with my grandparents, and we were fixing a fancy meal to mae them feel welcomed home! Now, while this meal was cooking, one of my brothers was on the couch, I was on the computer, which JUST SO HAPPENS to be RIGHT outside the kitchen entry, and my OTHER brother was INSIDE the kicthen with my FATHER, cooking. The rest of my siblings and mother HAPPENED to be out at the time, which is a relief.**

**Now, WHILE my father was cooking, he was using one of the portable propane stoves they use in resaurants and cooking schools, for, he is indeed in cooking school. AFTER he was done cooking with it, he turned it off, turned around to use the sink, turn BACK around to get his steak, and boom bam bang, my house exploded. My father and brother were burnt and off to the hospital, and I was simply thrown into the computers and left un-hurt. My OTHER brother, whom was sitting on the couch, wasn't even affected, luckily.**

**Now, I know what you're thinking, "Oh, are they okay? Are they alive? Is your house okay? Is the steak and risotto okay!" Let me assure you, we're all fine. The house had the entire downstairs blown out, with the addition of the pully-down steps for the attic upstairs, but all the humanses and aminals are otay. The most tragic thing, though, was that the food.. HAD GLASS IN IT! AHHHHH, I STILL CRY THINKING ABOUT IT NOW!**

***clears throat* Ahem.**

**Now, for my excuse. This past week or so I've been staying in a hotel with my family, sharing three rooms with 9 people, two dogs, and a cat. The rooms are moderate, not big enough, but not too small, either. I had no computers, and the Hotel's computer did NOT have my version of Word on it, andI could update it or patch it or whatever because it is, indeed, the HOTEL'S computer. Luckily, my dad rescued HIS computer from our house and set it up in his room, and I've been able to write there.**

**Soon after, I realized the Hotel had TWO computers, side by side, if you wanted to know, and I hadn't tried THAT computer yet. I tried it, and lo and behold, it had my version of Word. Silly me.**

**Now you know my excuse. Pure incompetence and failure to try ALL my resources. PLEASE do not kill me. As penance, I have written a dramatic chapter with a surprise ending and TWO cliff hangers for you guys! Yay, me! ENJOY!**

**Disclaimer: I have nothing. Not even a house anymore. Why would I have Twilight? Or Rugrats, for that matter? Oh, and I don't know Latin, G.T. is my bro, and, yes, MOST people in Austin, Texas treat the patriarchs of their families as dogs. Who doesn't? Nah, I'm kidding, they don't. As far as I know.**

**Chapter Nine: All My Pets Have Ear Mites, Even My Fish.**

"Mi scusi,"-_Excuse me_-"but was there a young woman admitted here… Say, around noon?"

We were currently on our second Hospital in the Westlake Medical Center near Lake Austin, having checked one before and been wrong. Emmett was now leaning on the front desk charming the nurse into telling us if they'd had a new patient and so far it was working. Couple his supernatural Angelic beauty with his Italian accent and throw in a couple foreign words here and there, and that nurse was a puddle of metaphorical goo at his hypothetical feet.

"Y-yes, there was, would you like to see her?" the nurse leaned forward on her desk, fluttering her eyelashes and resting her chin on her laced fingers causing her to knock her cup of coffee off the desk and spill it all over the floor. She cursed under her breath and bent down to clean it up, blushing and apologizing all the way. Emmett took mercy on the poor woman and ignored her spill, smiling dazzlingly at her when she straightened back up in her chair, forcing her to sit there and blink for a while, her mouth hanging wide open in shock and awe.

"Perché, sì! I _would_ like to see her, grazie!"_Why yes! I _would_ like to see her, thank you!_ Emmett reached his hand over the desk and took the nurse's in his, brought it to his mouth, and blew a kiss over it, causing the nurse to half-faint. Alice, Gareth, Jasper, and I snickered from our vantage point on the waiting chairs. Meatball was absent because animals aren't allowed in the Hospital, something about hygiene and cats being dirty. I think it's safe to say that Meatball was a little ticked when I didn't fight the dude and just threw her in a bush.

"You are very kind!"Emmett released her hand and smiled again, raising his eyebrows in a flirtatious manner. "_E molto _bella."_And _very_ beautiful_. At these three words, the nurse's eyes rolled back in her head and she fell backwards into her chair. However, with it being a wheelie chair, and the floor being slippery, the chair rolled back, causing her to slip off it and fall to the floor, cracking her head on the linoleum as she landed.

"Oops." Emmett peered over the counter and looked back at us, smiling sheepishly and rubbing his neck. We all took one look at his face and started laughing loudly-well, as loudly as we could without alerting someone to our presence in an echoey Hospital. "I didn't mean to do that… I just meant to get her to give me the room number."

"Nice one, dude!" Gareth snickered, covering his mouth with both his hands in that cute little way that he does. "I think she's out cold!"

"Is she okay?" Jasper walked up to the counter next to Emmett and peered over, most likely checking to see if the nurse was okay.

"Ah, she's fine!" Gareth said patting Jasper's back for that was all he could reach. "She's in a Hospital! What better a place to faint than here?"

"Yeah… I guess you're right…" Jasper rubbed his cheek and peered further, trying to get a closer look. "Still, though…"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do it!" Emmett squeaked, looking as if he had killed someone. Jasper and Gareth looked at Emmett, then to each other and burst out laughing again, causing Emmett to stamp his foot and whine. "Shut uuup!"

Alice rolled her eyes and shook her head while walking up to the counter and jumping over. She wheeled the nurse's chair back over to in front of the computer and started typing on it, her eyes flicking to and fro across the screen.

"Suure you did, Emmett, you fox, you."I winked at him and punched him in the shoulder jokingly as I passed him to jump over the desk as well causing him to pout and whine that he _really_ didn't. "So what'ch'ya doin'?" I asked Alice as I leaned over her shoulder to watch the computer screen, bringing us nearly cheek to cheek.

"Just looking for recent entries." Alice shrugged her shoulders and turned her head for a bit, hiding her eyes from me, before turning back to the screen and continuing her work. I noticed out of the corner of my eye her cheeks tingeing slightly red, but chose to ignore it in favor of not making things awkward.

"Here we go." she said, double clicking something and rolling backwards suddenly, causing me to stumble slightly and almost fall on my butt. "Room 105, let's go." She stood up and walked away briskly, leaving me confused and confused.

"Ah, Alice, that's the wrong way." Jasper said, pointing towards the opposite way to which she was heading. She turned around, her face even redder than before, and started to walk briskly down the opposite hallway.

"I knew that."

I shook my head and smiled, following after her and everyone else, being the last in the line of people since the hallway was cluttered with gurneys and carts full of stuff. _She's so cute sometimes._

Luckily, it seemed to be a slow day so we didn't run into anybody on our way to Angela's room. Suddenly, everyone stopped in front of me, causing me to run into Jasper and knock both of us down to the ground, landing on Gareth and smushing him beneath us.

"Hey, get off me!" He yelled, squirming underneath us and pushing us off with ease.

"Hey, it wasn't my fault!" I protested, helping Jasper up. "You shouldn't have stopped so suddenly!"

"Why did we stop anyway?" Jasper asked, brushing his shirt and pants of wrinkles and the occasional speck of invisible dirt.

"The rooms right here, guys." Emmett said, pointing to a room to my left.

"Why aren't we going in?" I asked, pushing my way to the front of the crowd right next to Alice. "She's right behind the door, right?"

"Well, yes, but I don't think all of us should go in." Alice put one of her hands out, gesturing towards the door. "She was just in a near death situation, so we don't want to scare her, am I right?" Emmett, Jasper, Gareth and I all nodded in unison. "So we should send in somebody she knows, right?" Again, we all nodded. "So that means Bella and I will go in, and the rest of you stay out here and out of sight."

"Hey, wait a minute!" Jasper protested, coming to stand next to me. "I'm supposed to be helping with this mission, so shouldn't _I_ go in?" I looked at Jasper and nodded my head. Made sense, why _couldn't_ he go? "So Bella 'n I will go in and the rest of ya'll stay out here."

"Wait, what?" I asked, taken aback. "Why can't Alice come?" I didn't know why, but I was feeling rather put out not being able to go in there with her. _Wonder why…_

"The little lady said so herself," Jasper said, patting Alice on the head and smiling down at her. "We shouldn't go in with too many people lest we scare the poor girl."

Alice shook his hand off her head and ran her fingers back through her hair, sticking it back up where Jasper had flattened it. She looked at me expectantly, obviously waiting for a decision.

"Well…" I trailed off, tapping my chin in thought. "I guess Jasper should come, then…" I looked to Alice, about to say something to her, but she looked slightly miffed and wouldn't meet my eyes. _Was it something I said?_ Jasper smiled at her, then looked at me, motioning for me to go in first. "See ya guys later." I looked back at Alice, staring at her until she gave up her unexplainable avoidance of me and met my eyes. "And be _safe_."

"Pfft." She crossed her arms and turned around quickly, trying and failing to hide another blush. "I should be saying that to you. For all you know she could be a serial killer or something…" Alice huffed and started walking off, probably to go and find somewhere to hide until we were done with Angela.

"Bye!" Emmett and Gareth called behind them in harmony before jogging off to catch up with Alice.

I turned towards the door and opened it slowly so as not to wake her if she was sleeping, or startle her if she was awake. I walked quietly in, letting Jasper in behind me and closed the door, not even allowing it to make a clicking sound, making sure the only noise in the room was the heart monitor's beeping and the three of us breathing.

I looked back at Angela to see she was sleeping, and before I could go and try to wake her up, Jasper put a hand on my arm and held me back.

"We should let her sleep." he motioned towards a chair at the foot of her bed, saying for me to take it, and I smiled gratefully, thanking him and going to sit down. He pulled up a chair in front of me so he was facing me and sat down, propping his elbows on his knees and resting his chin in his laced fingers. I felt a little awkward after sitting there for about ten minutes, with nothing to do but stare back at Jasper as he held my gaze with a determined look.

"Uhhh…" I said, tapping my fingers on my thighs and looking around before I re-locked our eyes. "What's on your mind?" Jasper looked away real quick before shifting his weight in his seat and looking back at me, pointing at me with his two index fingers while still having his hands laced.

"How do you feel about Alice?"

I breathed in quickly, choking on my air, and coughed loudly, pounding my chest and doubling over, trying to rough adjust my lungs into working again. When I could breathe freely, I looked to Angela, whose heart monitor was still beeping at that steady, slow pace, and looked back at Jasper.

"I'm sorry? I'm not sure I heard you right."

"You heard me, Bella." Jasper sat up straight in his seat, almost looking powerful before he spoke again, "I asked about your feelings for Alice."

"Feelings?" I asked, incredulous. _Why would I have feelings for Alice? Unless he means friendly feelings… Yeah that's probably what he means._ "We're… Good friends... I guess?"

"You guess?" he asked, folding his arms across his chest and adopting a stern look. "What do you mean, 'I guess'?"

"I mean… I… Think? We're good friends? Maybe?" I shrank under his scrutiny, suddenly feeling very small and weak beneath this new powerful being in front of me. _Where'd this Jasper come from?_

"Bella, do not play me!" he said with a scowl. "I see the way y'all look at each other, the way you look at her when you think no one's looking, and I don't like it. Not one bit."

"What are you talking about!" I asked exasperated, suddenly finding an unknown power to stand up to this new force and getting to my feet. I did my best not to yell and wake Angela up. "I don't look at her any differently than I look at you, or Gareth, or Emmett or Meatball. The only way _she_ ever looks at _me_ is in _anger_, and you _know_ it! She practically hates me, and I can't stand it sometimes!"

"Bella, do you really not see it?" Jasper asked after the short silence in which we both had gone silent, a look of curious thought on his face.

"See what?" I huffed, crossing my arms and plopping down in my chair, done with this conversation. Jasper raised his eyebrows at me and smiled slightly, dipping his chin into his chest to try and hide it.

"I guess there's hope for me, yet…" he mumbled under his breath, looking towards Angela and breaking away from holding my gaze which had been constant since the beginning of the conversation, if "conversation" was even the right word for it. It had been more of an interrogation, I swear.

_I mean, what was he trying to get at, implying I had feelings for Alice more than just best friends? I don't like her like that! Don't I…?_

I wanted to say something, but suddenly the heart monitor sped up slightly, just enough to let us know Angela was waking up. I stood up from my chair, ignoring Jasper's gleeful smile, and walked over to the side of the bed, dragging my chair behind me.

I sat down in the chair again and watched as Angela's eyes slowly fluttered open. She stared at the ceiling for a couple minutes before turning her head left to right, looking around the room. When she looked to my side, her right, our eyes locked, a flash of recognition shooting through her eyes.

"It's… You." she said, a small smile alighting her features. "I thought you were a dream… An Angel…" I shook my head, smiling back at her, laughing inside at the irony. She tried to sit up, only to fall back down, clutching her head in dizziness. "Whoa…"

"Here…" I grabbed her right hand with my left, and stuck _my_ right under her arm to help her sit up. When she was situated, she looked back at me, a new look of awe on her features. I smiled slightly and squeezed her hand, bringing her back down to Earth. "You okay, Angela?"

"Wait." she said, closing her eyes and shaking her head. "How do you know…My name? I don't… Remember you."

I reached into my back pocket and pulled out her wallet, a wicked grin on my face.

"Found your wallet. You're loaded aren't y-" before I could say anymore, a look of fear crossed her features and she snatched the wallet from my grasp, letting go of my hand and holding the thing to her chest with both hands. "Whoa, don't worry." I said, trying to placate her fear. "I didn't take your money, it's all still there."

"Huh? Money?" she asked, looking down at her wallet before recognition flashed in her eyes and she looked back up at me. "Oh! Yeah, money. Thanks. For… Not robbing me, I mean."'

"No problem." I said, smiling again. About then was when Jasper decided he'd been ignored long enough and he cleared his throat. He stood up and walked over to the other side of the bed and held out his hand.

"It's nice to meet you, miss. My name is Jasper, may I ask yours?"

Angela froze and turned around slowly, almost regrettably, until she came face to face with Jasper. She dropped her wallet and gasped, that fright crossing her features again. Jasper smiled confusedly for a while, until letting his hand drop and shuffling his feet. He cleared his throat again, noticing he'd lost her, and she snapped out of her daze with a jump, before looking at him again in awe.

"…Jason?"

* * *

Somewhere else, in an entirely different part of the Hospital, Alice, Emmett, and Gareth were hiding in a broom closet, trying not to get caught by a couple of idling staff who were standing outside the door, talking about their lives at home, and drinking soda.

"Emmett!" Alice hissed, pushing against him with both of her hands and one foot. "Stop leaning on us, we're suffocating here!"

"Yeah!" Gareth chimed in, wriggling around from behind Alice so he was no longer pushed against the wall.

"Well, I don't know, Jared, I just don't feel appreciated anymore!" one staff member said from outside the room, banging his fist on the door to the broom closet. "It's like they don't see me as a father figure anymore!"

"Mi dispiace,"-_I'm sorry_-"but please!" Emmett whispered as low as he could so the staff outside the door wouldn't hear him even if they tried. He brought one finger up to his mouth and gave a pleading look. "Shhhhh! They mustn't hear us!"

"I've seen how they treat you, Hank," the other staff member, Jared, replied. "Leaving out a dog food bowl of food every night for when you get home isn't that bad. You should see how Benson's kids treat him! They don't even let him in the house anymore!"

"Well, I'd be quiet if you'd just move your big butt offa me!" Alice grunted, pushing some more on Emmett, causing him to grunt from the effort of not falling through the door.

"Yeah, well-" Hank, the first staff member, looked towards the broom closet door curiously. "Hey, you hear something in there?" Jared looked back towards the door and cocked his head to listen.

"Yeah, I do. Wonder what it is."

"I can't help it if you're as small as a due anni!" _Two year old!_ Emmett sniped from inside the closet, finally losing his temper from Alice's constant attitude since they left Jasper and I with Angela. "Maybe you should grow some and we won't have this problema!" _Problem_.

A visible vein popped up on Alice's head, but before she could retort, Gareth cut in, his voice nervous.

"Guys, be quiet! I think they hear us!"

Just after he spoke, the door opened, the closet no doubt spitting the trio out and onto the floor with a sigh of relief, startling Hank and Jared and causing them to stumble backwards and fall on their butts, spilling their sodas all over their newly dry-cleaned scrubs.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be here!" Hank shouted after a while of staring slack jawed at the groupt of what looked to be two children being kidnapped by a hulking man-figure.

"Corri!" _Run!_ Emmett surged to his feet and sped off, leaving Alice and Gareth by themselves on the floor in front of Hank and Jared, who were still on the floor themselves, wide eyed and mouths open.

"Kids are you-" Jared tried to see if the kidnapees were okay, but they soon rushed off after the giant hulking man who had fled not moments before, leaving the two Hospital staff in a daze.

They both shared a look which said, "I won't tell anyone if you won't" and nodded to each other, forming a solemn vow to never relive this hour again. They then got up off the floor, and proceeded to clean their mess up, all the while taking imaginary bleach to their memories.

* * *

"Emmett, where are you!" Gareth cupped his hands over his mouth and called out with all his quiet might, searching for Emmett, who had disappeared somewhere after running away and had left them lost and by their lonesome in a practically deserted Hospital.

"Gareth, I don't think he's even in this wing anymore." Alice grumped, her sour mood from before still alive and kicking (You know, metaphorically. Well… It might have been literally, too…).

"Haahhh…" Gareth sighed, his shoulders slumping. He looked at Alice and grinned wickedly. "Hey," he said, nudging her in the shoulder. She looked at him with a question mark face and his grin grew wider. "Wanna go have some fun?"

"Fun? In a Hospital?" Alice was confused, which I still don't get. The most fun I'd ever had in the first ten years of my life was in a Hospital with a puzzle that had Angelica on it from the Rugrats T.V. show (What? Puzzles are fun!).

Gareth wiggled his eyebrows and gestured towards a closed door with his head, his smile growing broader and more mischievous. A look of realization dawned on Alice's face and she matched his smile, perhaps with a little more deviousness than the original.

"Got it, let's move."

* * *

Half an hour later, Gareth and Alice were strutting around the Hospital in full on Doctor's coats, magically having found some with their names on them (well, Gareth's was "Garrett" and Alice's was a "Mr. Ali", but it was close enough), with just slight variations in the surnames, stethoscopes, and (I still don't know how they got these, but) handcuffs and tazers hanging on their newly acquired belts. I'm sure, at that time, there were some doctors and security guards somewhere wondering where their stuff went, and how it disappeared.

"That was so cool!" Gareth practically squealed, jumping up and down as he followed Alice down a corridor. "We should do it again!"

Alice smirked and shook her head. Her bad mood from earlier had almost entirely disappeared, and if Gareth hadn't brought it up seconds later, she probably wouldn't have sunk back into it and smacked me in the arm the next time she saw me.

"You're feeling better, now, huh?" he asked, linking his hands behind his back, having to roll up the sleeves on his coat a bit to do so, and walking sideways so he could see Alice's face. He frowned when he saw her face sink back into a deeply irked expression, but didn't say anything in favor of not irking her further.

"No." she snapped, sticking her hands in her coat pockets and slumping her shoulders, her joyous walk turning into a depressed trudge. "And I'm not feeling bad, so lay off!"

Gareth cursed under his breath (which I personally would have smacked him for, but Alice just ignored him, which in my mind deserved a smack as well) and turned to face forward, narrowly missing running into a dirty food cart.

"Why are you so grumpy, anyway!" he snapped himself, getting tired of Alice's grumpy mood. "No one did anything to you! You're not allowed to act like this!"

"I can act however I want!" she snapped again, stopping in her trudge and turning to face him, straightening her back and locking gazes with him. "They're my feelings; they'll be hurt if I want them to be!"

"Well, you can't just-" Gareth stopped mid-shout and adopted a thoughtful look. "Wait, why would your feelings be hurt?"

"What? They're not!"

"You just said they were! Although I don't understand why they'd be hurt… Unless…" a look of intense understanding dawned on Gareth's face, forcing Alice to blush and look away, casting her gaze towards the floor. "…Unless you like her! You like her! You like Bella! I shoulda seen it! You wanted to go in with her instead of Jasper! You wanted to _be_ with her!" Gareth threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "This explains why a _Dimidum_ would be putting up with a _Nephalem_ and an _Angel_ of all things!"

Alice's head shot up quickly and her eyes locked once more with Gareth's, her eyes black and smoky, a deadly threatening look clouding her features. Gareth gulped and unconsciously took a step backwards to distance himself from the more powerful creature before him.

"Don't you dare say a word to _anyone_. Do you hear me?" Alice took a step towards him, causing him to take another step backwards, gulping once more. "_Do you hear me_!"

Gareth nodded quickly and gulped again, letting out a small whisper of confirmation. Alice breathed out a relieved sigh and relaxed instantly, stepping back from Gareth, allowing him to get out of the uncomfortable position of being pushed up against a door handle that he hadn't been aware he was in.

"You know, that's not my only reason for helping her out," Alice said, rubbing her neck and looking away. She wasn't used to taking about her feelings like this, but she assumed it was better talking to someone who couldn't fully understand what she was saying. He'd probably be less likely to feel the need to tell somebody if he didn't know the enormity of what was going on. "There's something about her that feels different than normal Nephalem, but I can't place it. I originally agreed to go with her just to find out what it was, but I kinda… My reason changed."

Gareth nodded sagely and rubbed his chin.

"Uh-huh, uh-huh, I know what you mean." he said, frowning a bit. "She feels somewhat… odd," Gareth shook his head and smiled wickedly. "I gotta warn you about something, though,"

Alice looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a curious look on her face.

"And what would that be?"

"I kinda like her, too, and seeing as how I've got an in with being so 'cute' and all, I think I've got more of a chance."

Alice looked at him, shocked, before frowning deeply. She hadn't realized she'd get any competition in this matter at all. I mean, considering how she thinks I am a stupid, incompetent fool who can't do anything right and has no idea how to be serious (she hurt my feelings when she told me that…), she couldn't think of _anyone_ who would even _think_ of falling for me. On the other hand, she, the smartest, most clever, most devious, practically the _bestest_ person (in her mind, everyone knows _I'm_ the most bestest,) in the world had done so, why couldn't anyone else? Well, on the _third_ hand, Gareth _was_ a twelve year old boy, so she concluded that he posed no threat and she should stop thinking so hard.

She smiled wickedly herself and entered into a stare-down with Gareth.

"We'll see about that." They both unconsciously leaned forward until they were nose to nose, which wasn't hard, since Alice wasn't _that_ much taller than him, lightening crackling in the background because of the intensity of their stares. "You should probably give up now, save yourself the trouble later on."

Gareth snorted and rolled his eyes.

"You wish. I'm not giving up 'till the fat lady sings," he looked left to right then back to Alice. "And I don't see any fat ladies."

Alice snorted and shook her head, straightening up and smoothing the wrinkles out of her new coat, choosing to be the better person and have this not escalate into a shouting match with a child. She was an adult, she wouldn't stoop that low. In a Hospital, anyway.

"Let's get going, we need to find Emmett, and then get back to Jasper and Bella."

"So you can get all lovey-dovey and keep Jasper away from her, right?" Gareth clasped his hands and put them to the side of his cheek, batting his eyelashes and speaking in a sickeningly sweet voice. Alice all but ignored him, choosing to just punch him on the shoulder instead.

* * *

Ten minutes of dodging Hospital staff and wandering through passage ways later, and they still hadn't found Emmett. They were beginning to worry that he'd been caught by security guards or something and kicked out of the Hospital for good.

"Are you sure we shouldn't just leave him and go back to Bella?" Gareth whined, slumping his shoulders. All this walking is boring!"

"Shh!" Alice shushed him with a stern look. "No, we need to find him! We left with him; we go back with him, that's how it works!"

Gareth rolled his eyes and they kept walking for a few minutes before they both froze up at the same time, not moving, not blinking, not even breathing until they bother turned their heads to look at each other.

"Do you feel that?" Alice whispered, too low for anyone to hear if they were further away from her than Gareth was, even if they had supernatural hearing.

"Yeah, I do…" he whispered back, his voice filled with surprise quickly changing to awe. "It feels like… Home."

"Wait, Gareth, don't-" Alice tried to stop him, but it was too late. Gareth sped off as fast as he could, his speed causing everything he flew by to either soar through the air after him, or topple over, crashing to the ground with a resounding clang.

Alice cursed under her breath and flew after him, being able to go faster than him because of the maturity of her powers, but not being able to go fast enough. Before she arrived to where the odd feeling was resonating from, she heard a blood curdling scream so high pitched; it would just give mortals major headaches. This was the scream of a Devil in pain.

She doubled her speed, sliding around a corner, before bursting through some doors outside into the parking lot. She skidded to a stop, shocked, but not surprised by what she saw. Standing just twenty feet away from her was a man; Tall, dark, handsome. He was dressed like her, and his face resembled hers only slightly, but was marred with a gleeful and demented smile as he stared at Gareth who was transformed, hanging limply from the man's arm which was stuck all the way through him, coming out on the other side in a bloody mess.

The man turned his head to look at her and smiled in genuine happiness, dropping his arm so that Gareth slid off of it, falling to the ground in a pile of limbs and wings, breathing only slightly.

"Maria Alicia!" Mary Alice! The man spoke in Latin, the words flowing off his tongue with a practiced ease, as if this was his first language. "Suus ita magna videre vitiosus opiniones sunt falsum!" It's so great to see those vicious rumors are untrue! The man looked down and shook his head, his smile dropping somewhat. "Et cum iter aure Nephalem Angelus gravissimum fuisset, non ea?" That would have been the worst thing, wouldn't it?

The man looked up at Alice, expecting her to answer, but not getting anything. He frowned and scratched his chin.

"Quare non respondit mihi?" Why are you not answering me?

"Alice…" Gareth wheezed from his spot on the asphalt. The man looked down at him, confused, but curious as to what this young Dimidum had to say. "I finally figured out what Bella feels like…" He stopped for a while, wet coughs shaking his frame, no doubt spraying blood everywhere with every surge of his body. "She feels like… Him."

"'Bella'?" The man repeated, looking back up at Alice. "Qui est hoc, 'Bella'?" Who is this, "Bella"?

At the sound of my name, Alice snapped out of the trance she was in and stared angrily at the man who had just practically killed her friend, and is now daring to speak my name? The name of the one she cared most for in the entire world? No way. She could just see the things this man was no doubt planning on doing to me and anyone else who dared get close to her, and she didn't like it one bit.

Finally, she breathed out one small word; one small word that held so much anger, disgust, mistrust, and pure unadulterated hatred, that it would have silenced a football stadium during the Superbowl right after the best play in the history of the game.

"Father…"

**A/R: Dramatic, no!**

**Y'okay, so let's recap. Jasper has feelings for Alice (as if you didn't already know that), but so does Bella, but she doesn't quite realize this. Bella ALSO thinks that Alice hates her, and it's killing her inside.**

**Angela woke up and is acting all shifty, but Bella's too trusting and too much of a dimwit to realize. Also, she somehow knows Jasper, but calls him Jason...?**

**Emmett is now classified as a kidnapper.**

**Gareth has feelings for Bella, but is twelve, and so does Alice. She, however, DOES realize she likes Bella, but doesn't want anyone to know about her feelings, because she's insecure about them.**

**Gareth is half-dead lying on the floor, and Alice has a pappy that she doesn't really like.**

**And last but not least, Meatball is in a bush somewhere.**

**Hope you enjoyed! Please review, they'll heal the burns faster! Ow, they hurt! I need review cream!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	10. Ch 10: Someone Once Said That I Have

**A/R: Happy birthday to someone, happy birthday to someone...**

**Why, hello there, readers! I'm here with an extra special EARLY update for a fan I like to personally call, "FufuTheFallenAngel". Her request was so pathetic I just HAD to give it to her. Just HAD to, man! You know how it is!**

**Well, I just have to say, I didn't think I could do it, but I did! Two chapters in, what, three-ish days? A new world record (for me)! Whoop!**

**So! I'm finally getting my own creation out there! Look forward to the one with the cards, and you'll know who I am speaking about!**

**Get on with it!**

**Disclaimer: Google Translate is mah buddy, and I don't own anything publicly recognizable. No, not even my face. Sadly, the corporation owns that. Look, it's even got a little sticker on the inside, riiight... There. Oh, you didn't know I was a robot? Well, I am.**

**Chapter Ten: Someone Once Said That I Have Stomachs In My Legs. They Were Right.**

"…Jason?" Angela looked at Jasper, mouth agape, a look of fright and awe painted on her face.

"'Jason'?" I echoed, confused. "That's not Jason, that's-" Jasper jumped over the bed and covered my mouth with his hand, an earnest look on his face. He pulled away slowly after a while, his eyes locked with mine, telling me to let him handle it.

"Yes, yes, I'm Jason." Jasper said after he got re-situated in his chair. "And you're Angela."

"Jason!" Angela cried out, jumping onto him and wrapping her arms around his neck. I looked questioningly at Jasper, but he just shrugged and patted her back. "I thought you were dead! I thought… I thought that… Since they never found your body…" Angela pulled away, her eyes watering, looking as if she were about to burst into tears. Instead, she smiled and pulled him into a bone crushing hug. "Oh, Jason, I'm so glad that you're alive!"

"Y-yeah, me, too. I… Hit my head in the accident, so I don't remember too much… Mind filling me in?"

Angela pulled away a second time, her face holding a hint of doubt, but it was instantly flushed away by the flood of relief she got by seeing Jasper's face again.

"I… I don't really remember, either. I was just told about it afterwards, so I don't know the specifics." Angela's voice cracked and her face fell for a split second before she covered it up with a forced smile. "All I know is that I was in an accident, and that you had disappeared, but now you're here, and everything's okay!" She hugged him again, sobbing for real this time, but in happiness instead."Everything's finally gonna be okay…" she whispered this last part too low for even Jasper to hear even with him being so close to her, but not for me with my supernatural hearing.

About then was when I heard an ear-piercing scream, forcing me to clamp my hand over my ears in an attempt to save my eardrums from bursting like an overblown tire.

"Did you guys hear that?" I screamed after it was done. _Before now I never got why people screamed after hearing something loud, but now I understand._

Angela and Jasper looked at me in bewilderment, their foreheads both creased and their faces looking as if they were both in pain.

"No, but why are you screaming?" Jasper said, shaking his head then wincing as if he were in pain. "Man, I have a splitting headache…"

"Me, too." Angela closed her eyes and started rubbing her temples, wincing herself when she heard me speak.

"That's odd…" I tapped my chin in thought. "I could have sworn I heard someone scream…" I looked at them both, finally noticing that it seemed as if they both developed a major headache at the same time. Suddenly, I started feeling a sense of dread, as if someone was in trouble. "You guys stay here," I pointed at the both of them, then at myself with my thumb. "I've gotta go check something out."

"Wait, Bella, where are you going?" Jasper tried to grab my arm as I was rushing out of the room to stop me, but I used my super soccer skills to dodge him entirely, leaving him a little bit stunned, but still worried.

"I don't know. Just, stay here!" I ran out of the room and down the hall, all but closing my eyes to follow the invisible path that I was being tugged along urgently, as if I had to be wherever it was leading me to _immediately_ with no questions asked.

* * *

"Father… What are you doing?" Alice stared at the man who had injured her friend, the man who had just been revealed to be her father.

The man cocked his head to the side in confusion.

"Maria Alicia quare non loquatur lingua materna?"Mary Alice, why do you not speak in The Mother Tongue?

Alice scowled, but replied, "Pellentesque tempus accommodanda, pater fortasse idem faciant." I've adapted to the times, father, maybe you should do the same.

The man stared at her, mouth agape, before shaking his head and scowling slightly.

"I do not see why I should stoop so low so as to speak like them," the man spat out the word "them" in a slight accent, as if it were a disgusting hot dog and had offended his taste buds. "But if you insist, I will accommodate you."

The man took a step forward, but Alice growled menacingly, her eyes turning black and shadowy.

"Do not take another step closer, father," she spat out the word "father" in the same fashion as the man had before her. "Or I will rip out your throat." The way she stated her threat made it sound less like she was giving a threat and more as if she were stating a fact. As if, if the man were to take one more step forward, she would indeed rip out his throat, no hesitance. The man sensed this, and moved back to his previous position, his smile fading.

"Why so much hostility, Mary Alice?" he asked, apparently bewildered. "I am your father! You should treat me with respect!"

"Father!" Alice shouted, enraged. "You stopped being my father the day you left me alone on the streets when I was five! Five!" she gestured wildly, her eyes brimming with angry tears."Do you have any idea how that made me feel! Any idea at all!"

"Mary Alice, it was for your own good. You needed to learn not to deny The King." Her father stood there calmly, as if his long lost daughter wasn't shouting at him and wasn't just a few seconds from killing him. "Hopefully this time on your own has taught you. Now, come along, we must go. I have plans and we mustn't be late."

Alice stood there, shocked that her father would act as if no wrong had been done and that he still had any sort of power over her and her life, before clenching her teeth and hands, and looking down at her feet, as if putting the horrible man before her out of her sight would quell her anger any. It didn't.

"I'm not… Going anywhere… With you!" she roared her last two words as she leapt forward towards her father, transforming her hands, which had fiery claws adorning them, and teeth, which were sharper than the sharpest knife, and aiming straight for his throat.

"I really thought we could move past this, Mary Alice…" Alice's father sighed dramatically and opened his arms, as if inviting his daughter into them. "I guess we'll have to do this the hard way…"

Just as Alice came within half a foot of Alice, he disappeared, as if he had never been there. Alice landed and stood stock still, trying to sense where her father had gone. She felt a hint of power to her left and slashed out at it, hitting only air. She stood still again, waiting for the next hint, before striking again.

This happened a handful of times more before Alice's father managed to grab her from behind with one arm, trapping her arms against her side, and grabbing her throat with his free hand. Alice struggled for a while, before her father shut her up.

"One more move, Mary Alice, and I'll rip your throat out." Alice's father shot her threat right back at her, whispering in her ear with the same certainty in his voice as was in hers before. When she stopped struggling, he perked up immediately. "Well then, we should get going! Don't want any unforeseen interruptions!"

About then was when I showed up.

I burst through the doors to the back parking lot and skidded to a stop. I stared in shock at seeing Gareth crumpled on the floor, his breathing shallow and his heartbeat barely there, but my attention was grabbed by Alice in the arms of a familiar man.

He was the man with the fiery eyes from my childhood.

"Bene, bene, bene! Che cosa abbiamo qui?"Well, well, well! What have we here? I stood stock still, frozen in fright as the man smiled, his mouth of razor sharp teeth being put on display for the entire world to see. He spoke in Italian, which confused me slightly since he didn't look Italian, but I shook it off and focused on the fact that he had Alice. Wait. He has Alice!

"Put her down!" I shouted, running at him with wild abandon, not thinking about what I was doing, just knowing somehow that he could very well kill Alice in one move if he wanted to and I had to do something about it.

"Bella, Bella, Bella! Si deve sapere meglio di correre dritto verso di me!"You should know better than to run right at me! When I got close, the man disappeared and reappeared back where I was standing right before I ran at him. "Pensavo che avrei imparato dall'ultima volta." I thought you'd have learned from the last time.

"Wait, what?" Before I could look around I was kicked in the back of the head and sent flying through the air, crashing into a car and making the alarm go off.

"Bella!" I heard Alice yell my name through a hazy fog, my eyes threatening to close and never open. "Bella, wait, I'll get to you! Hold on!"

"Whoa, there, Mary Alice," the man said, probably trying to restrain a squirming Alice and hopefully losing. "You don't want to do anything you'd regret, right?"

"Gah! Let me go!" Alice yelled even louder, probably squirming even harder. I heard grunts of pain and small screams of frustration and knew I couldn't just lay there doing nothing when Alice was out there fighting that evil man all by herself.

I forced my eyes open, my head ringing like crazy (the blaring car alarm didn't help. I'm actually surprised no one showed up), and pushed myself up with my hands. I got onto my feet and started to walk forward, only to fall backwards and have to catch myself on the car that had a really cool-looking imprint of myself in it, my head killing me.

I looked up to check out the situation, to see something I hadn't ever wanted to see. Alice was being held up by the throat by the man with the fiery eyes who had his arm pulled back as if he were going to punch her.

"This will teach you to respect your superiors!" The man yelled, throwing his punch in slow motion. I recognized what was going on. It was what happened when I saw my father before… I did that. I knew what was going to happen next, and this time it wouldn't turn out horribly.

I jumped forward, roaring, my entire body searing hot like a burn and my back exploding out into my wings, thoroughly destroying my shirt. I held out my hand and a sword of fire appeared, roaring large, hot, and white in my hand, my rage fueling it. The man looked at me, curious, but it was too late. I was on him.

I crashed into him, grabbing him and successfully knocking Alice out of his grasp. She fell to the ground, coughing, but I paid little attention to her. I had to deal with this guy. I had to deal with the man who had haunted my dreams for years on end. The man who ruined my life.

We landed on the ground and rolled, the man trying to escape my grasp, but me not letting him. When we stopped rolling, I was on my back, and he was on top, so I got my legs underneath him and kicked him up and into the air. I watched as he looked at me in shock, then an overly happy expression given the occasion appeared on his face, his eyes alight with excitement.

I was confused for a moment, but shook it off and roared as I slashed my sword at him. I saw him reach for me, but he was consumed by the flames and was turned to ash.

I rolled to the side and got up, my flame sword disappearing in my hand as I walked towards Alice, who was crouched over Gareth, no doubt trying to keep him alive.

"Ah, ah, ah, Bella," I heard someone whisper in my ear as a hand clamped over my shoulder and turned me around. Standing right there was the man whom I had thought I had killed. He raised his fist up. "You can't expect me to die so easily, can you?"

I was about to reply, but suddenly I was flying back, skidding across the ground to land near Alice and Gareth. I felt my throbbing face to find that I was bleeding from a cut under my left eye, and I would no doubt have a black eye later on. When I stopped moving, I found that I no longer had the energy to keep up my Angelic form, so I melted back to Human, taking note of the two extremely large holes in the back of my shirt.

"No, you can't." the man walked slowly towards us, a smug smile on his face, his voice full of… Smugness. "You see, I am a Devil. The great Devil Lues," he raised his arms into the air, as if demonstrating his power. "And with just a touch, I can bring plague and disease upon anyone I wish."

"Aren't those the same things?" I asked, coughing. By this time, Alice had switched to my side after concluding that there was nothing she could do for Gareth, and was currently cradling my head in her lap, holding part of her sleeve to my eye to staunch the bleeding.

"Quiet!" the man now named Lues hissed, dropping his arms and giving me a deadly glare. His focus soon switched from me, to Alice, then back to me, then to Alice. I noticed this and tried to get up, to block her from his view.

"You stay away from her!" I yelled, doing my best to come to at least a sitting position, but being pushed back down by Alice, who had her eyes locked with Lues.

"Ita video opiniones _sunt_ vera." So I see the rumors are true. Lues shook his head, scowling, but smiled after seeming to have thought of something. "Non materia! Postea de me verberavit!" _No matter! I can beat it out of you later!_

"You won't get the chance."

I looked around suddenly, trying to find the source of the mysterious and manly voice with a Spanish accent, but before I could find anything, Lues seemed to fall over, clutching the side of his head where his temple is.

"Quis ibi!" _Who's there!_ Lues stood up and turned around, looking frantically for the person who spoke, but not finding him, his hand still clutching the side of his head, which had started to bleed profusely. "Ostende te!" _Show yourself!_

"Alright."

Suddenly, there was a katana, its blade red hot, sticking out of Lues' chest where his heart should have been were he to have one.

"Surprise."

Shifting a little to the side, I could make out the head of the someone who had stabbed him.

He was a distinctly Hispanic individual, with short shaggy black hair that fell into his eyes, mostly covering the top half of his face from sight, and slight stubble. Not enough to call a beard or a mustache, but stubble nonetheless. From what I could see of him, he had scars all over, not like Jasper's which looked like he got them from surgeries, but as if he had been sliced by something and had let the wounds heal without stitches.

"Caleb…" Lues coughed and the blade was retracted from his chest, causing him to stumble forward and fall to the ground on his hands and knees, one hand covering his chest instead of his head showing off a bullet hole that was bubbling as if it had been cooked.

When Lues fell, he fully revealed the man behind him who was sheathing his rapidly cooling sword. He was about my height, maybe an inch or two taller, and was wearing cargo capris, a skin tight, long sleeved, turtle necked, black Underarmor shirt, Puma running shoes (the cool ones with Velcro), a sheath for his sword on his hip, and two shoulder holsters holding twin guns.

"Lues," he said, gazing down at the Devil in disdain. "What were you planning on doing with these niños?" _Children?_

"Lorem ipsum dolor sit motum absolutum!" _I just wanted to finish what I started!_ Lues glared at me, then looked to Alice, who was still holding me. "Et filia retro." _And have my daughter back._

The guy with the sword, Caleb, and I both glanced at Alice briefly before looking back at Lues, who had now been revealed to me to be Alice's father. _What are the chances?_

"Well, you're not doing a very good job of it, eso es seguro." _That's for sure_. Caleb stepped forward and took out his guns, pointing them at Lues. "¿Por qué no acabar con esto, ¿eh?" _Why don't we get this over with, eh?_

"Ego malo non." _I'd rather not._ Lues chuckled and lay down on the ground. "At non elit." _At least, not right now_. He looked at me. "Te post, _Bella_." _See you later_, Bella.

I shivered in disgust at his use of my name and watched as he melted into a puddle of crickets, who then hopped away.

Caleb put his guns away and walked towards us, stomping as many crickets as possible on his walk over here.

"I would assume _you_ are 'Bella', then?" he asked, coming to kneel next to Alice and I. I nodded and he studied my face, then studied Alice's, then looked behind us to study Gareth's heaped up form. "We must save the child."

"What?" I asked, going to sit up again, this time pushing Alice off of me as she tried to get me to lie back down.

"The Dimidum behind you. We must save him."

I looked behind me to see Gareth, lying in a heap, blood pooling around him, barely breathing, and instantly felt bad for having forgotten about him. I looked back at Caleb, a determined look on my face.

"How?"

Caleb stood up and reached a hand down for me. I grabbed it and he hauled me to my feet with more ease than I would have expected, and lead me over to Gareth, keeping me upright and walking the entire time.

When we got there, he forced me to kneel next to him in the puddle of blood and watch as he rolled Gareth onto his back and folded his wings up behind him in the process. I almost vomited at what I saw when he was done. In the middle of his stomach was a big hole going straight through to where I could see the blood soaked asphalt if I looked, his organs were spilling out, and every time his heart beat, more blood would actively squirt out and join the already slightly larger-than-needed puddle.

"This kid is lucky he was in his Devil forma"-_Devil form_-"when attacked. Otherwise he'd be muerto." _Dead._ Caleb grabbed my hands and pressed them against Gareth's wound, grossing me out in the process. "Now, I know you've done this before, so sanarlo." _Heal him._

I mentally slapped myself (for my hands were occupied at the time,) and cleared my head. _Right now is not the time to be thinking of how gross this is. I need to remember what Emmett told me._

I looked deep within myself and found my little Fun Box full of power. I assumed using only a little wouldn't work since the wound was so big, so I let out a whole bunch, causing my eyes to change and glow as well as my hands, which were, instead of just simply glowing like with Jasper, had changed into my "Angel" hands and were covered in tattoos.

"Por el amor de uno que, no!" _For the love of-not that one!_ Caleb squeezed my wrists tightly, forcing me to look at him and cease what I was doing, but leaving my hands and eyes transformed. "Use the _other_ power, or you'll just make it worse!"

"Other…?" I queried, not knowing exactly what was going on.

"_Neph?_" I heard Meatball's voice come from inside of me, pulling me away from the outside world and back into the inner recesses of my mind. "_Neph, you there?_"

"_Meatball?_" I asked, confused. Wasn't she only allowed in when I _wanted_ her in?

"_No, Neph, I can force myself in whenever needed, and right now seemed like an opportune time. Now why are you using so much power?_"

"_Huh_." I huffed, slightly miffed that she didn't even knock. Shouldn't she have knocked? I mentally rolled my eyes when I heard her chuckle. She can read minds now, too? "_If you must know, Gareth is dying, and some dude named Caleb told me to use 'the other power' to heal him, but I have no idea what he's talking about._"

"_Caleb? Huh. Well,_ _Neph, think about it. What other power do you have other than your Angelic power?_"

I thought about it for a bit, before it hit me. _The strange power Meatball encountered when sealing me that one day!_ It had been quiet so long, I had forgotten about it.

"_How do I access it?_" I asked, determined.

"_Neph, you must be careful. This power is very dangerous, and if you can't control it, you could destroy the whole city if-_"

"How _do I access it_?"

"_Fine. Just look underneath your Angelic power, but don't say I didn't warn you._" With that, Meatball's presence disappeared from my mind and I was left to my own devices.

_Okay, all I have to do is look under…_ I lifted up my Fun Box slowly, as if something might jump out at me, and saw a pool of bubbling smoky blackness. _This looks familiar…_ I reached my hand in, dipping only the tip of my finger into the substance, and felt nothing. Well, not _nothing_, per se, but it was just like sticking my hand into the shadow of a tree, just a slight bit cooler than standing out in the sun that was my Angelic power. And the power I got from it wasn't the sort of calm energy that I felt when getting Angelic power, it was more like a rush, a rapid river if you will. It filled me up and I could feel the smoke crawling up my arms as it tried to consume me, and I was powerless to stop it.

"Okay, Bella, that's enough." I could barely hear Caleb speak to me through the blackness that was clogging all my senses, and could barely feel that he had grabbed me and pulled me from Gareth, throwing my away so that I landed on the asphalt, the pain of scraping my shoulders and elbows barely registering.

"Bella, you need to let go of it!" This time, it was Meatball, not in my head, speaking, but it still had no affect on me, and I could feel myself slowly slipping away.

"Bella, wake up!" Gareth.

"Bella, if you don't wake up, I'll hate you forever." Alice. Alice? _Alice_!

I pulled away from the darkness, frantically sweeping the smoke off of my arms, and jumped back to grab my Fun Box and slam it back down on the hole it had previously been covering, throwing extra Fun Locks on it to keep it contained. I stood back as the Fun Box shivered and surged, as if something was clawing at a door to get in, but eventually it died down and finally stopped. I sighed in relief and opened my eyes, plunging myself back into reality.

"Bella!" Alice jumped on me, hugging me to her, nearly breaking my back, but all I could do was hug her in return, thankful that she had saved me from that strange darkness that I was now considering Evil. _What exactly _am_ I?_

"Alice." I breathed her name out in a sigh of relief and sat up, hugging her tighter. "I came back, please don't hate me."

"Silly," she said, pulling away to look at me, her eyes filled with something I couldn't quite decipher. At that moment in time, all I could see was the most beautiful thing in the world, and I couldn't help but have one thought going through my head: _Was Jasper right?_

She studied my face for a couple minutes before sighing, hugging me to her one last time, and letting go. She got to her feet and I instantly felt cold and alone, as if a piece of me had been taken, never to return.

"Come on, Bella, Gareth wants to see you." She held out her hand, and I felt slightly better. I grabbed it, and I knew. I knew Jasper was right, or, if he wasn't, he was going to be soon. I wanted her closer, but right now I'd have to make do with holding her hand.

"Bella!" As soon as I was standing, I had a slight repeat of what happened when I first resurfaced, but instead with a slightly smaller, slightly less feminine Dimidum this time. Only slightly, though. "You saved me! Bella, you saved my life!" Gareth was clinging to my top half; arms and legs wrapped equally around me, and was squeezing as hard as he could.

"Whoa there, down, tiger." I said, chuckling. I hugged him back, and picked him off of me (which was struggled against with quite a lot of fervor) and set him on the ground, pouting his face off. I cooed at him and ruffled his hair, entranced by his cuteness, and he smiled wickedly.

"Bella?" he asked all innocent-like.

"Yeah?"

"Could you come here, please?" I shrugged and leaned down towards him, cocking my ear so I could hear him, because I assumed he was going to tell me something. "Closer, please." I leaned down more to where, if I were looking at him, we'd be eye-to-eye. "Perfect." He leaned forward and pecked my cheek, then scurried away as if he'd done something devious.

I blinked, surprised, but straightened up and rubbed my cheek. I had _not_ been expecting that.

"So, thanks for saving us and all, but who are you?" I heard a grumpy Alice ask. I looked up to lock eyes with her, maybe try and figure out why she was grumpy, but she was turned towards Caleb, who now had the wind blowing in his face, causing me to gasp at what it revealed.

On his face, reaching from one temple to the other and crossing his eyes, was a large scar going _through_ his eyes as well, clearly blinding him. What bewildered me the most, though, was that this entire time, he had been acting as if he could see better than a million not-blind men mushed together into one _super_ not-blind man.

Caleb smiled slightly and without even looking at me, said, "I see you've noticed my scar? Sí, estoy ciego, pero al ver que no es la única manera de ver." _Yes, I am blind, but seeing isn't the only way to see._

Alice cleared her throat and glared at me for interrupting her without even saying anything, which I thought was unfair because I hadn't even _said_ anything!

"As I was saying, who are you?"

Caleb looked up quickly, and turned his head to look behind, and slightly to the left of Alice, towards the Hospital doors.

"Let's wait for _him_, shall we?"

I turned around to look where he was staring-or was it staring at all? I don't know with blind people,- to see Emmett burst through the doors of the Hospital and rush towards us, breathing heavily.

"Ragazzi!"-_Guys!-_"I got here as fast as I could! Demons attacked me when we got separated and-" he stopped and looked around at us, noticing my ouchies, the fact that Gareth had a hole in his shirt and was blood soaked (but otherwise fine,), the car alarm and the Bella-shaped indent in it, and the new face among us.

"Emmett," Meatball purred, appearing from behind his head and rubbing against the side of his face. "You missed all the fun."

"I can see that…" he said slowly, studying Caleb. "Is that you, Caleb?"

"Yes it is, General." Caleb took a few steps closer and got down on one knee in front of Emmett. "It is good to see you again." he looked up, smiling, his hair falling from his face so Emmett could see his scar. "Well, 'see' being hypothetical, I mean."

Emmett boomed out a laugh and grabbed Caleb by the shoulders, lifting him up into a giant bear hug.

"Caleb! I thought we'd never see each other again!" He set Caleb down on the ground and patted his back, causing him to stagger forwards a bit, but otherwise smile back up at him. "Well, I guess I was right, huh? You blind now?"

"Yes, I am. Got into it with a Devil twenty years back and lost my sight."

"How're your card skills coming along?"

Caleb pulled out a deck of yellow playing cards with rag dolls on the backs that was held together by a doubled up rubberband.

"Better then ever, Gen."

"Good! Very good!" Emmett boomed out another laugh, slapped Caleb on the back again, then stopped short, finally noticing that we were all standing there, all wondering what in the world was going on. "Oh! I guess I should introduce you guys! This is Caleb Guerra, one of my soldiers from The War!"

"One of your best!" Caleb interjected, smiling.

"Not just one of them, he was _the best_." Emmett smiled wider and ruffled Caleb's hair, much like how I do to Gareth. "I was lucky to have him with me when I decided to turn sides. There's no way _ever_ I'd have managed to stay alive if we had gone at each other as Devils and Angels." Emmett put on a caring smile and ruffled Caleb's hair again. "He's like a little brother to me, so treat him with respect."

"Es bueno conocer a chicos." _Nice to meet you guys._ Caleb put out his hand to shake, but no one took it so he rubbed it on his pants and stuck it in his pocket. "Ah, Bella, I saw how you charged Lues."

"You did?" I asked, surprised. _If he was there then, then why didn't he help out sooner?_

"Yes, it was brave, but foolish. If you'd like, then I could teach you to fight."

"Really!" I asked, excited. "You'd really teach me how to fight!"

"Sí. Provided you listen to everything I say and follow along with no questions."

"Will do-"

"Bella!" Alice grabbed me by the arm and pulled me back to face her and Gareth, turning me away from Caleb, Emmett, and Meatball. "I don't think you should agree to something like that. What if he wants you to do something bad?"

"Yeah, I agree." Gareth added in. "He could make you do something you'd really rather not."

"Like what?" I asked, confused. When they were unforthcoming with an answer, I sighed dramatically and shook my head. "Guys, besides the fact that he's an Angel-"

"_Fallen_ Angel." Alice interrupted.

"_Fallen Angel_," I clarified. "Besides that fact, he's Emmett's little brother. You know Emmett, he wouldn't do anything that would get us in trouble, _including_ introduce us to his little brother."

"I guess you're right…" Alice and Gareth mumbled under their breath.

"Great!" I turned around and clapped my hands. "So! I'll accept your terms…"

"Great, now there's _another_ guy around her…" Gareth mumbled to Alice in the middle of my speech, to which she just grunted, but I was too distracted to hear them.

"…Provided you teach Alice and Gareth as well!"

"Deal." Caleb said, smiling. "Hasta entonces, muchachos." _See you then, guys._ And with that, he turned and ran out of the parking lot as a few people _finally_ started turning the corner to see what the noise back here is about.

"Ooh! We should probably get going!" Emmett said, looking as if he'd been caught, which was a horrible thing, considering where we were standing.

"First one to Angela's is a rotten egg!" I yelled, sprinting off out of the parking lot, following the path Caleb had chosen to get out of there.

"It's 'last one', idiot!" I heard Alice yell after me as they all followed along, laughing.

"That, too!"

**A/R: Hey, guys! Did you like it? Well, I'm gonna do something special here instead of the summary, okay? Okay. I'm gonna answer ALL my anon reviewsv (well, all those I DON'T know personally)! Yayy! From now on, I'll do both, so stay tuned to the end of the chapter for my delicious awesomeness!**

**Reviewer1234: Fallen? I saw that at Walmart a few times. What's it about?**

**Guest: Yes. Yes, I did. I actually LITERALLY gave her claws. Claws of Hellfire. :D**

**Tytus: Why, thank you, kind sir-ish-looking-thing! I do my best!**

**Guest (again): She can actually do a lot. If you're still readin by now, then you'll probably (if you're payng attention) get a sneak peak at exactly WHAT she can do.**

**guest (this time, lower case!): *sniffs* I'm so touched... I can't believe someone thinks all those things about something I (a complete noob!) made. I'd like to offer you something in return for your kindness! Here... *digs in pocket* Have a tarantula!**

**That's it, see ya laterz!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	11. Ch 11: My Momma Tricked Me Out For

**A/R: Hey, you guys... Haha... Please don't kill me!**

**Look, I'm sorry this chapter is uber late! I sincerely apologize to EVERYONE I know/don't know, but mostly to God's Little Demon. I'd try and get out of your rage and say I DID say, "Maybe", but I don't deserve it.**

**Anyway, as for my excuse, I had swapped hotels right after I finished page nine in this chapter, and the hotel we swapped to DOESN'T have a public computer. No public computer = No me writing time. Sad, I know.**

**Anyhow, I'm currently at my uncle's, so all's well in the world. Maybe. I can't make any promises on when the next chapter will be released, or even when I'll START the stinken' thing, but just know that it WILL come. Or else. *threatens self***

**Enjoy it!**

**Disclaimer: As stated in previous entries unto you's dudes, I do not own ANYTHING publicly recognizable in ANY universe, unless, of course, I DO, but in this case, I don't. Oh, well.**

**Chapter Eleven: My Momma Tricked Me Out For Major Yard Work!**

"I'm keeping this shirt." Gareth held up the shirt he had previously been wearing, looking through the extra holes right through the middle. "I'll wear it on special occasions."

"Are you sure…?" I asked, in the middle of rinsing "his" and "Alice's" doctor's coats with warm water to try and get the stain out as best I could before washing it. I still don't condone them stealing all that stuff from the Hospital, but I couldn't really do anything about it now.

"Absolutely. You should keep yours."

At the moment we were at Angela's "apartment" about 5 days after our scuffle with Alice's father, Lues (I still hadn't asked her about that), finally switching out our dirty rags for slightly less dirty rags, doing laundry, and pigging out. Luckily, she'd allowed us to stay without asking questions about where we were from, where we were going, or who exactly we _were_ (all good questions that we couldn't have answered truthfully), as long as _we_ didn't ask any questions about _her_.

"How're the coats coming?" Angela asked, walking into the kitchen where Gareth and I were currently residing. "Do the clothes fit?"

"The coats are…" I looked down to the coats, deducing that they were as washed out as I could possibly get in a sink, and turned off the water, turning towards Angela and wiping my wet hands on the pair of extra short shorts she had lent me. "… About ready to be washed. And, yes, the clothes fit fine."

Angela had leant us (or bought us in Emmett and Jasper's case) new clothes to change into when we arrived at her place of residence. I wore a black tank top with self-cut holes in the back for my wings so I don't ruin anymore shirts (which confused Angela, but, as usual, she didn't ask) and a pair of too-short-for-my-tastes black shorts with white and pink stripes down the sides, Gareth wore just a pair of old basketball shorts with the drawstring pulled all the way and tied, opting to go shirtless for reasons unknown, Jasper and Emmett wore graphic T's and blue jeans, and Alice chose to go with just a plain white shirt that was too big for her, and another pair of too-short-for-my-tastes shorts. Angela even bought Meatball a new harness and collar, which looked just adorable on her if you'd ask me.

"Alright, just give them to me and I'll get a whitening load going." I wrung out the coats and handed them to her, making sure not to drip blood-tinged water on her nice clean floor. It would be bad if police were to randomly use that black light thingie to search her apartment and saw the blood on her floor.

"You know, I don't see how you can call this place an apartment," I commented, following her into the laundry room where she threw the coats into the washer along with the rest of our clothes (besides Alice's, hers were fancy and needed to be dry cleaned) and turned it on. "It's ridiculously huge."

"It's not that big…" Angela said meekly, blushing from embarrassment. I don't know why, though. If I was her, I'd have been showing it off, not hiding it from view!

"Of _course_ it is!" I nearly shouted as we left the laundry room and went to the _gigantic_ living _area_ (yes, it was so big; it was no longer classified as a room, but an _area_. It had half a stinking _basketball court_ for crying out loud! And rafters!), flabbergasted that she would think it anything _other_ than big. "You've practically got the _entire building_ as one room!"

Okay, so maybe I was exaggerating a _tad _(it was more like just the entire _floor_), but, man, this girl was _loaded_!

"Bella, maybe you should stop pestering her about it." Jasper straddled up to Angela's rescue, shining armor and all, and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, his other hand in his pocket. "If she don't think it's big, then it ain't."

"Thanks, Jason." Angela smiled and got on her tip-toes and kissed him on the cheek, causing Jasper to blush, and me to smile, then practically skipped over to the couch where Gareth and Emmett were playing video games and sat between them.

"Yeah, _Jason_," I smiled teasingly, crossing my arms. Jasper scowled at me and my smile only grew bigger, but soon transformed into a serious face. "Jasper, I have to tell you something."

"And what would that be, Bella?" Jasper asked, disgruntled for being interrupted in the middle of his search for a come-back.

"I've finally figured out what you were talking about last week in the Hospital." I locked eyes with Jasper and he raised an eyebrow, feigning ignorance.

"Oh? And what was that?"

"Jasper, I'm just here to tell you that you don't have a chance as long as I'm around." I crossed my arms and smiled. "Besides, _Jason_, you're already in a relationship, aren't you?"

"Bella, you know that doesn't count, I-"

"What doesn't count?" Angela came up behind Jasper and settled in beside him, smiling at me and looking at Jasper in greeting. "What're you guys talking about?"

Jasper looked at her as if he were caught in a trap, and looked quickly to me for help.

"Ah, nothing important," I replied nonchalantly. "Jason was just saying he had a surprise for you, but didn't want me to say anything, so now he's getting all worked up and angry at me for mentioning it."

Jasper glared at me, worked up and angry, not because I was mentioning his secret plans, but because I was spouting lies that got him into a tough spot that he wouldn't be able to get out of alone.

"Oh?" Angela smiled, her face radiating pure happiness and slight deviousness. "Then you should stop telling me before he busts a vein, huh?" Angela and I shared a small laugh at Jasper's expense, before she hooked one of her fingers in his belt loop and tugged slightly. "Come on," she said. "I wanna show you some pictures of us together; maybe jog your memory some."

Jasper had explained to Angela after I had left them that he had a "small" case of amnesia and could barely remember anything about his life before the accident. All he could remember clearly was that she was in his life, and they were in a relationship, even with her being twenty-two, and him being only nineteen.

"Alright, lead the way." he said, smiling convincingly down at Angela. She turned around, dragging Jasper by the loop of his pants, heading off to her bedroom to probably get an album or two.

Jasper looked back at me, his eyes saying one thing, and one thing only: _"If you don't get me out of this, I will shave your head in your sleep so that you have the hairstyle of a clown."_

I shivered and nodded slightly. Clowns are vicious. Jasper, placated for now, turned back around and followed Angela to the back of her apartment where her room was.

I decided I'd had enough of confrontations that ended with the death threat of my hair, so I crossed the room and sat down on the couch to watch Gareth and Jasper play Angela's video games, which consisted mostly of Disney princess and motocross/racing games. They'd asked her about it when we first arrived, but she'd just shrugged and said the princess games were her niece's and the motocross/racing games were an addiction of hers.

At the moment, Gareth and Emmett were trying to restore color to the world of Snow White.

"Hey, where's Alice?" Emmett asked out of the corner of his mouth, not wanting to disrupt his concentration as he slowly, but steadily, got past the mine carts in the dwarves' mines.

"You know what, I don't actually know." I replied, confused and wondering where she was myself. I hadn't seen her since we were given the clothes to change out of. I know she changed because I could hear her giving Angela specific instructions on what to tell the dry cleaners, but I hadn't seen her since she disappeared behind her temporary bedroom door.

"Well, don't you think she should show up by now? She's gotta be hungr- Ah ha! I got it! Beat that!" Emmett had just collected all the gems he needed while Gareth was scowling and still trying to catch them in his mine cart.

"I guess I'll go find her." I stood up and went to head towards the kitchen, hungry now that Emmett brought it up, but Gareth stopped me with a hand on my shirt and a slightly worried look on his face.

"Wait, Bella, I'll go, you don't need to," he said, standing up and pausing his game, causing Emmett to whine in protest that "he was winning" and that "Gareth just wanted to go because he didn't want to lose".

"Nah, I got it, just stay put, play your game, and I'll go alone." I gently coerced his hand to let go of my shirt, blushing slightly at the thought of being alone with Alice and the things that might just occur. _No, no. I need to stop thinking like this, Alice doesn't even like me. Nothing will happen._ I mentally berated myself as Gareth scowled and crossed his arms, plopping down on the couch.

Ever since I realized my feelings for Alice, my mind has been wandering, which it normally does, but into unknown territory this time, causing me to blush every time I saw the girl. I was hoping no one noticed the change, but I could be wrong.

"Fine, whatever. Go." I looked at him oddly, but he just picked up his game controller and ignored me.

I shook my head and shrugged, continuing my trek to the kitchen. I made two sandwiches, and grabbed a soda and headed towards the back of the apartment, towards the guest bedroom Alice had disappeared into earlier, and, if I was lucky, would still be in now.

I knocked on the door and heard a soft, "Who's there?"

"It's me, The Amazing One, open up." I pressed the side of my face to the door so I could better hear what was going on, and I heard the soft rustling of cloth coming from behind it somewhere.

"You can come in."

I opened the door slowly, balancing the plate of sandwiches and the soda (which was some kind of Mexican cola, don't ask me) on my left arm. I entered backwards so I could close the door behind me with the least maneuvering and not spill the food on the floor, but halfway in, I felt eyes on me and turned around to see Alice, sitting on the bed with the covers covering her lower half, looking away and blushing.

"I brought you food." I kicked the door closed behind me, a curious expression on my face, but chose not to ask, and just set the food on the desk. I leaned on it and started eating, staring at Alice, expecting her to get up and come over to get some food, but she just sat there, fidgeting and staring at her sandwich.

"Aren't you going to eat?" I asked, confused. "I even brought you a soda of some sort."

"Can't you just…" Alice shifted on the bed, looking quite uncomfortable. "Bring it over here? Please?"

I stared at her, baffled.

"Of course not! You heard what Angela said, no eating on the furniture!"

"Couldn't we just ignore it?"

I rolled my eyes and shook my head, sighing and taking another bite of my sandwich.

"If you don't come and get it, I'm going to eat it myself." I heard Alice's stomach grumble and nodded, stealing myself to eat her sandwich if I so needed.

"Fine! Just a minute…" Alice cursed under her breath, and I would've scolded her, but she took a calming breath and threw the covers off of her and stood up, causing my eyes to go wide.

_Wow… I don' know why, but I'm starting to re-think my dislike of these shorts…_ After a while of my blatant wide-eyed staring, Alice blushed and looked down, fidgeting with the bottom of her shorts, trying to pull them down just a _tad_ bit more.

"You know, I certainly don't see the fascination that girl has with wearing such short shorts…" she mumbled, trying to save face by acting as if she wasn't embarrassed while it was clear she was. "Maybe on other people…" Alice mumbled and looked back at me, blushed, then looked back down and started fidgeting more.

I couldn't agree more with what she said, but I just kept my mouth clamped shut and averted my eyes to admire the ceiling, then my amazing handiwork at making a sandwich.

"I-I think it looks nice." I whispered so low that I wasn't even sure she heard me at first, but I knew for sure when she blushed even brighter.

"Th-thanks…" she shuffled her feet a bit and swallowed. "You-you look nice, too."

"Thanks…"

I felt incredibly awkward, and no doubt it was apparent to anyone and everyone. I'd never, _ever_, liked someone before, so I wasn't used to it, but I was pretty sure things weren't supposed to _be_ that awkward. I straightened my back and cleared my throat to break the silence.

"So, uh…" I struggled for words, but finally found a topic in my sandwich. "I brought you food."

"I guess you did." Alice shuffled her feet before approaching the desk and picking up the most amazingest sandwich in the world: One made by me. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Things fell silent again, still awkward, so I excused myself and left to find something to do. When I saw Emmett, a thought occurred to me that hadn't since that day in the parking lot.

"Hey, Emmett," I asked, leaning on the back of the couch and poking him in the head. "Where's Caleb been? Didn't he say he'd teach us to fight?"

"Look behind you, Bella." Emmett said absentmindedly, not taking his eyes off of the T.V. screen and all but ignoring me.

I looked behind me and jumped in shock, almost falling on my butt, but catching myself on the back of the couch. Right there, shooting baskets, was Caleb. At the moment he was holding a basketball in his hands and frowning down at it.

"You'd think the one with eyes would have been able to see him first, huh?" Emmett chuckled, still not looking away from the screen. "He's been asking about you for a few days, now."

"How long's he been there?" I asked. My eyes were still on Caleb as he positioned himself just so beneath the basket so that he could toss it in with a whoosh.

"He's been with us since he first showed up." Gareth piped up from the other side of the couch. "You seriously didn't notice him?"

"He is kind of sneaky when he wants to be." Emmett snickered from this side of the couch. "He once went an entire week without letting me see him, let alone even _sense_ his presence. I was seriously doubting he was even there, but he told me, in detail, what I had been doing that entire week when he finally decided I was worthy of looking at him." Emmett rolled his eyes and went back to his game.

"I heard that!" Caleb shouted from the basketball court. "And I want to let you know, Bella, that he bet me a month's worth of doing my bidding if I could hide myself for that entire week."

"I still say he cheated…" Emmett mumbled under his breath and threw down his controller, Gareth exclaiming in exasperation as Emmett won their round of "Who Can Make the Prettiest Dress?"

"I'm going out, guys," he said as Meatball jumped onto his shoulder and he went towards the front door. "You guys take this time to get situated. Don't break anything."

"'Break'?" I repeat to myself. "Why would I break any- AHH!" In the middle of my pointless question, I had turned around to go and ask Caleb something, only to find him standing less than two inches from me, staring with his lifeless eyes. "What-what was that for!?"

"Lo siento," _I'm sorry,_ he said, putting a hand on his heart and stepping back with one foot to turn to the side and point at the basketball hoop which had the basketball stuck between the hoop and the backboard. "But I shot the ball and it disappeared. Do you mind helping me out?"

"Uhh…" I said, looking around for anyone else to help, because, seriously, I'm not tall enough to reach that thing, before failing and turning my head to look back at the blind man in front of me. "Sure, okay. Let me get a step stool or something."

"Not so fast," Caleb said, grabbing my arm as I moved to brush past him, effectively keeping me from going anywhere. "You don't need a stool, just use your power."

"Uhh… Caleb?" I questioned, slightly confused. "Hasn't anyone told you that I can't use my power for nothing?"

"Yeah, right," Caleb snorted, shaking his head. "And you mean to tell me that you _didn't_ call upon your Angelic form _on will_ last week, and you _didn't_ heal sweet little Gareth without so much as a thought?"

"Yeah, I did, but-"

"'But' nothing, Bella," Caleb snapped, sternly crossing his arms in front of his chest. "Those are things only a Nephalem of ten years should be able to do, and you're telling me you don't have enough control to retrieve one, _eensy, weensy_ ball that a twelve year-old could do without effort?"

I marveled at him as he reprimanded me, stunned at the fact that he had practically just yelled in my face. _Wow, I can totally see his military years shining through, but besides that, is he serious? Am I really _that_ cool that I could skip past the years of training I missed that are holding me back and just… _Do_ things I shouldn't be able to? Is he seriously saying that?_

"Now, come on, Bella," he said, heading towards the basket, waving for me to follow him. "Help me with my ball."

I followed him, still slightly shocked. He lead me over to the hoop and pointed up, pretty much exactly where the ball was, and said, "Get it."

"Uhh…" I said, looking around. I gave up and stood under it, reaching up, and tried to jump, but to no avail, jumping just high enough to be able to graze the ball, but not push it. "I can't reach."

Caleb rolled his eyes-I didn't even know blind people _did_ that!-and shook his head, then said in an exasperated tone, "Use your _power_, Bella."

"Oh, right." I buckled down and set my feet. I closed my eyes and looked into myself, shutting out the outside world, and grabbed some power from my Fun Box and rubbed my hands together, effectively spreading the power through them. I opened my eyes, noticing that my hands were glowing slightly, and lifted them in the air, trying to transfer power the from my hands, to the ball, while keeping just enough to be able to control the object, just as Meatball had taught me so long ago with that rock.. After a while of trying, I watched in amazement as the ball glowed slightly, and then levitated upwards, then downwards and into Caleb's outstretched hand.

"Very good." Caleb said, smiling slightly. I was about to thank him before he turned around and climbed up the basketball hoop, stopping on top of the backboard, then leaping and holding onto the bar the curtain hangs off of, before tucking the ball between his legs and moving hand over hand to the edge, and then finally grabbing the ball and swinging one-handed onto one of the rafters in the roof.

I stared up at him in shock and awe, shocked that he had just climbed like a _non-blind_ monkey up the side of a _wall_, and awed that he had just climbed like non-blind _monkey_ up the side of a _wall_.

He smiled down at me, basking in my awe of him, before wedging the basketball into the corner of one of the rafters and jumping down, landing as light as a feather.

"Next, you will try to get that," he pointed up to the basketball, and then brought his fingers up to mime the number three. "But with three rules. No levitating, no flying, and no one can help you _physically_."

"What? How? You climbed like a- and you landed like- and- and- you're blind! How!?" I blabbered, not able to form a complete sentence, my arms flailing through the air with no real purpose.

"Okay, so, one, climbing is essential to get to high places without wings, two, you learn how to land softly when spending centuries _with_ wings, and, three, as I told you before, seeing isn't the only way to see."

"I- whatever," I huffed, about to ask what in the world that means, but deciding against it. Don't people usually answer questions with riddles when your question is _about_ a riddle? "So… Do I climb?"

"Oh!" Caleb said, smacking his cheek, his face flabbergasted. "I forgot! Four rules! No climbing! At least, in the traditional sense."

"What!?" I asked, outraged. "How am I supposed to get up there without climbing!? And what do you mean by the, 'traditional sense'?!"

"I dunno," Caleb said, shrugging and looking slyly to the side. "Angelic power can be used to do almost _anything_. Think of something, then do it." he tapped his temple. "Use your imagination. Anyway, I've got some previous engagements, seek me out when you've gotten it." he turned around and started to leave before turning back around, having forgotten something. "Oh, and, Bella?"

"What?" I grumbled, upset that I had to do something that seemed impossible.

"Don't be hesitant to ask for help, just… Don't take any offered you, okay?"

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, expecting an answer, but instead getting an "Adios, Bella!" and the back of a running Angel.

I scowled and turned back around to look at the basketball, hands on my hips, when something occurred to me.

"Hey, wait! You got the ball stuck on purpose, didn't you!?"

* * *

Somewhere else, where I wasn't facing certain failure, Meatball was roaming about down an alley way, walking slowly, deftly avoiding puddles of gross looking liquid, when she suddenly stopped and turned around, eyeing the overly dark shadows behind her, spotting what she was out there looking for.

"If you're gonna stalk me, you should know it's useless to stalk a feline." she purred, sitting on her butt and licking one of her paws, her tail flicking slightly behind her. A pair of red eyes glowed to life in the shadows and a vicious roar echoed from the darkness, so loud it nearly knocked Meatball over, but she dug her claws into the ground and stayed in her spot.

"_Dux_…" a raspy voice breathed from the shadows. Meatball wrinkled her nose, offended at the smell the creature was emitting when speaking, and yawned.

"Wow, that'll wake the whole neighborhood. Can we get this over with? I haven't slept in three hours." she leveled a glare at the eyes, earning another roar in response, but instead of being frightened like the creature had been expecting, she just sat there, smirking, enraging the creature more.

"_Die_!" it rasped, charging out of the darkness, revealing itself to be a sort of leathery dog shaped creature with no fur, no ears, and no tail. Its eye sockets were empty, sunken holes, and its teeth were large and covered in green foam, just like the first demon I encountered.

Meatball rolled her eyes at the demon, and just as it was about to bite into her neck, its head disappeared as if running through a doorway, its velocity carrying it forward, making the rest of it disappear along with the head. Not even a second after the entire demon disappeared, you could hear a yelping sound being cut off halfway through.

"Another victory, eh, gato?" Emmett walked up behind Meatball, kneeling down so she could jump onto his shoulder without difficulty. "Where'd you send it this time?"

"Russia." Meatball said, licking her paw. She opened one eye, noticing that Emmett was carrying a long bag of some sort and a bag from a puma store that had three pairs of shoes in it, and decided to question him about it. "What's in the bags?"

"Wow, you're evil." Emmett said, shaking his head. "Oh, and this?" he brought up the bag and shook it, causing the sound of wood clicking together to resound throughout the alley way. Meatball cringed and Emmett laughed his booming laugh, deciding that he should probably get out of there before he busted her eardrums, and started walking. "Nothing, really. Caleb just asked me to get some things for him."

"Hmm. Knowing him, it's probably something to do with training." she curled up on Emmett's shoulder, it being broad enough to fit her entire form, and decided to take a nap. "Wake me when we get there."

Emmett chuckled, poking the cat in the butt, and nodded as he made his way towards their temporary home.

"I hope Angela and Jasper are okay..."

* * *

A half hour or so earlier, in _another_ place I wasn't, Jasper and Angela were walking along the halls of a mall, eating ice cream, their clasped hands swinging slowly between them, when they both heard someone calling their names in a distinctive Italian accent.

"Jasper! Angela!" Emmett called, jogging up to them with a bag of shoes in one hand and a weird long bag in his other. Jasper smiled and nodded at him, while Angela stuck what was left of her ice cream cone in her mouth and waggled her fingers at him in a wave. When he arrived, he stopped with a small bow and said, "What're you guys doing here?"

"Well, we could ask you the same thing." Jasper smiled slightly, amused at the idea of the big hulking man-figure was out shopping in the mall like a teenage girl.

"Yeah," Angela agreed, swallowing her last bit of ice cream cone. "What's a big manly-man like you doing in a _mall_ of all places?"

Jasper glanced at her, wide-eyed, wondering at the fact that the woman next to him seemed to have just read his mind, before looking back at Emmett, who was scowling at Angela's assumption of his level of manliness.

"I'll have you know, _bambina_,"-_little girl_-"that my manliness is triple fold if I'm willing to take one for the team and go do something _un-manly_, like _shopping_, for a bud!" with that said, Emmett set down his larger bag, swung his bag of shoes over his shoulder, let out a very un-_manly_-like "Hmph!", stuck his hip out to one side while placing his free hand on it, and turned his nose up in a very popular-cheerleader-y way.

Jasper chuckled while Angela giggled at Emmett's display, earning them a goofy grin from the Italian in question.

"Hey, guys, I actually came over here to ask you something." Emmett said, returning to his normal standing position and picking up his bigger bag, his face turning serious.

"Shoot." Jasper and Angela said at the same time, causing Jasper to give her another odd glance that she didn't seem to notice.

"Have either of you seen Meatball around? I haven't seen her in a few hours, and-" before Emmett could get any further, he was cut off by a loud roar, sounding almost like something was dying. Jasper and nearly everyone else in the mall clamped their hands over their ears to block out the sound, but Angela just stared straight forward into space, her eyes holding and unending sea of fear.

"I gotta go, ciao!" Emmett hurriedly yelled over his shoulder as he pushed past them quickly and sprinted towards the exit.

Jasper watched him in bewilderment. After a minute or so, he shook his head and chalked it up to something Angel-y and looked back at Angela, shocked to see her trembling and with tears dripping slowly down her face.

"Angela!" he said softly, moving to stand in front of her and putting his left hand on her shoulder, his other cupping her face in worry. "Angela, what's wrong?"

"I-it-it-i-it's…." she stuttered, not even able to get one word out properly because of her fright.

"'It's' what, honey?" Jasper asked, pulling her into a hug which she returned fiercely, burying her face into his shoulder and full out sobbing into his shirt.

"I-it's b-ba-back…" she whispered between sobs, holding on tighter to him.

"What's back?" Jasper cringed as he heard a second roar echo through the mall, causing a lot of people around him to shout in terror and sprint towards safety, wherever that may be.

"Th-the thing tha-at took you aw-away!"

Jasper tightened his hold on Angela as a fresh batch of fear-filled sobs wracked through her frame, shaking him to the core.

"Angela…" he whispered softly in her ear, frightened that if he spoke any louder, she might fall apart at the seams. "I think we need to talk."

She answered him only with more sobbing, his shirt ever soaking as he held her.

**A/R: *low whistle* Dude, 'dat girl got some proooblems! Not that I should be talking... ANYONE would be emotionally (and physically!) scarred after whatever I put whoever through (I'm trying to be mysterious! SHHHH!).**

**Y'Okay, so, I felt a little awkward writing a CERTAIN bit of this chapter. See if you can guess which! ... Yeah, I'm ridiculous, I know it's painfully obvious. What can I say? I've never had feelings for ANYTHING before. Not my expertise.**

**As for the guest replies...**

**guest (again with the lower case! WHOOOO!): I'm sorry, but I'm allergic to ice cream. Nice try, though. ;)**

**And for the re-cap...**

**Gareth likes bloody/holy *PFFFFT* shirts.**

**Angela WON'T be going to jail if her floor gets randomly black-lighted.**

**Jasper-I'm sorry, I meant JASON- is in a fake relationship with Angela (the poor girl), but still thinks he has claims to Alice? Uh-uh, boyo, that's not how it works!**

**Bella hates clown hair.**

**Alice is self-conscious and un-used to wearing such revealing clothes (even if it isn't revealing at ALL *rolls eyes).**

**Caleb is a blind-ninja and is officially my favorite OC (Sorry, Hollow, but you love your OWN kid more than your neighbor's :P).**

**Emmett is a girly-girl.**

**Meatball kills demons by sending them to Russia...**

**AAAND, Angela is demented.**

**HOPE TO SEE YA NEXT TIME! READ AND REVIEW, and please, DON'T forget to make me some toast. White bread, please.**

**-Peace, G.C.**


	12. Ch 12: I Hijacked A Rainbow And Crashed

**A/R: Why, long time no see, everyone!**

**Hey, sorry this took so long! I wanted this to be up yesterday, or even earlier today, but I had some other things to do, including being in a short film! And also watching my grandma's dog, which I'm doing right now, as well.**

**It's not of the best quality, because I wanted to get it done and up before the end of today, so feel free to review telling me of any errors.**

**What? You want to know what the film's about? Well, I'll tell ya!**

**It's basically about a girl (me) who finds she can see people's deaths. After seeing and confirming one of her closest friend's death, she attempts to stop the next vision of a girl she doesn't particularly like.**

**Spoiler alert: I die in the end! Whoopee!**

**What? I just put my own words into your mouth and you REALLY want to know what took me so stinken' long? Well, I'll attempt to tell you that, as well!**

**I had the first third of this chapter done for a while, but add in writer's block coupled with the fact that the only computer available for me to write with wasn't available except for the wee hours in the morning when both my parents were sleeping, and you get a very small window for writing anything. I apologize. Hey, though, you get a suspenseful chapter full of lameness as a peace offering! What more could a person want?**

**Disclaimer: I wish my name was Richie Rich. Since it's not, then you can imagine that I didn't have enough money to buy Twilight, The Amazing Spiderman, or anything else publicly recognizable. I'll just have to ask Santa.**

**Chapter Twelve: I Hijacked A Rainbow And Crashed Into A Pot Of Gold.**

"Okay, that's it. I give up." I flopped onto the couch next to Gareth, and let out a dramatic sigh.

I had been standing in the same spot for what felt like quite a while, just staring at the ball, wondering how I would get it. I had been so focused; I hadn't even known Jasper and Angela had entered the room until Jasper threw a jacket at me to get my attention so he could inform me that they were leaving. I told them to buy me some candy, but other than that, I ignored them.

"What were you doing, anyway?" Gareth paused the movie he was watching and turned to me, one of his eyebrows raised quizzically. I looked at him for a while, noticing that he had decided to put a shirt on. Not just a normal shirt, however, but a shirt with the sides practically cut off instead of there being sleeves. Yeah. "Bella?"

"Oh, uh…" I shook my head and looked from his appalling fashion choice to his face. "I was just trying to figure out how to get that basketball from the roof." I shook my head and stuck my thumb behind me, pointing approximately towards the spot where the ball was stuck. Maybe.

"Oh." Gareth said, looking over his shoulder to try and find the ball. He let out an "Ah!" when he found it, then turned to me, smiling. "I could fly up and get it for you, if you want." he offered, standing up.

"Nah, it's alright." I said with a sigh, waving my hand at him to let it go. "Caleb told me I wasn't allowed to 'accept help offered', but I should 'not be afraid to ask for it' or something."

"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked, confused.

I shrugged and slumped further into the couch, looking interestedly at the giant T.V. screen as Gareth un-paused it.

"What'ch'yawatchin'?"

"The new Spiderman movie."

"Oh, is that on DVD now?"

"Apparently."

We both fell silent and turned to watch the movie, my attention split between it and what Caleb told me earlier. When I came in he had just been getting on the subway and was freaking out.

_"..Angelic power can be used to do almost _anything_..."_

Spiderman was being attacked on the train after getting his hand caught on a woman's dress, accidentally ripping it off. You really can't blame those guys for attacking him, though.

_"…can be used to do almost _anything_..."_

Spiderman got stuck on the ceiling and fell off, beating on people accidentally.

_"…almost _anything_..."_

"I've got it!" I shouted, standing up from my seat and rushing to the wall previously climbed by Caleb.

"Got what?" Gareth asked, poking his head up from the couch and looking over the back of it, pausing his movie again so he could pay attention to whatever I happened to be doing.

"Shh, I need to concentrate." I said, bringing my fingers to my face and focusing hard on them. I _imagined_ tiny little hairs growing from the pads of my fingers, like how they did in the _first_ Spiderman movie (since, you know, I hadn't really _seen_ the new one), and watched in awe as little blue hooked hairs grew from the pads of my thumbs.

Imagine that, Caleb was right about my imagination.

I slowly put my fingers onto the wall, trying to get my hands to stick, but to no avail. It was like the hairs just got pushed back and weren't hooking into it like they did in the movie. Huh.

I brought my fingers back and stared at the hairs, pumping more power into them to make them sharper, more rigid, so they'd stick into the wall and hopefully hold my weight.

I put my fingers back on the wall, feeling the hairs sticking inside it, and this time, when I tugged, my hand didn't come loose. I did a victory dance in my head and put my other hand onto the wall, getting ready to test my weight on it, when I found that I couldn't remove my hands. They were stuck.

I pulled and pulled, frantically trying to free myself from the drywall, but instead of my hands coming off on their own, they instead came off with little chunks of wall stuck to them. I fell on my butt from pulling so hard and grunted, feeling Gareth's no doubt wide, incredulous looking eyes on the back of my head, but ignoring them in favor of not losing my temper due to frustration.

This wasn't going to be easy.

* * *

After a few more tries, Gareth had come over to offer up his advice (which I was allowed to take, since I _asked_ for it (though I didn't really _want_ to. Pride, and all that.)), and I decided to change my strategy and used a kind of a suction-ey thing mixed with one of those futuristic looking glow-ey climb-ey devices you see in the new MI movie. Don't judge me, it looked good in my head, and it worked. As long as it works, right?

Anyway, my whole hands and shoes ended up giving off an intense blue glow, showing exactly how much power I had to channel into my appendages to keep me on the wall while avoiding ripping off large chunks and ruining my gracious host's house any further than I already had.

The act itself, however, was tiring. I hadn't quite figured out how to keep the power in my hands and feet and actually _remove them from the wall_, so I had to constantly channel power in and out of my body, wearing myself out quickly in the process. It felt as if I was doing a _super _intense work out, and no amount of cheers I got from Gareth would deter it. I would seriously need to work on that.

"Go on, Bella, you're almost up!" I heard Gareth call from the bottom of the room, allll the way down _there_.

I looked down at him, and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. The room was changing colors and nothing would stand still. Not even the various flower pots decorating the room would quit their ridiculous mating dances.

"Whoa, trippy…" I whispered to myself, pulling up one last time to grab on to a ledge, my muscles straining, sweat dripping freely from my entire body, just to lay down on it and close my eyes, finding it surprisingly comfy. Those colors were seriously giving me a headache.

You know, 'cause it had nothing to do with the fact that I'd just pushed myself beyond my limits and was probably super dehydrated and had a lack of oxygen and all that. Nope, nothing at all.

"Bella, you okay, up there?" I could barely make out Gareth whispering – or was he shouting? – something at the bottom of his lungs over the loud, incessant ringing in my ears, but I opted to ignore him. Instead, I inhaled as much as I could, feeling as if my lungs were closing, and rubbed my chest, trying to see if I could open up my airways. I think it helped a little, but that could have been wishful thinking.

"Bella, I'm seriously worried- are, are you okay?" Gareth's faint voice just got fainter, but rather than ignore him a second time, I decided to reply in as loud a whisper as I could without hurting my head. He'd probably hear me.

"Gareth… if you're even _thinking_… about coming up here… to get me down… stop. I am _not_… climbing _all _the way… back up here... after that. It's _not_… happening." I took a couple ragged breaths, my arms slung over my eyes to block out the minimal sun that could reach me coming in through the windows.

"I think… I'm just gonna… take a nap…" I trailed off, slowly losing consciousness, but before I completely lost it, I swear I could hear Gareth yelling something about water and medicine or something in a high-pitched, squeaky voice.

I didn't dream while I slept. Just replayed some old memories.

* * *

"Bella, Bella, wake up."

I moaned in pain, the soft spoken words offending my head in ways I'd never experienced before. Why did I hurt so much? I kept my eyes closed, but instead of going back to sleep, I just seemed to grow more conscious by the second.

"Come on, Jasper and Angela are back, and they don't look good."

I could barely feel my arms and legs, except for a dull throbbing that I knew would only grow if I were to try and move them. I moaned in pain again when I attempted to just wiggle my toes and a sharp flare of soreness shot through my leg and hit me like a freight train. I'd never been in this much pain before (it was even worse than when I'd been beaten by Alice's dad (wow, that sounds bad)), and for the life of me, I couldn't remember what I'd done to feel this way.

"Bella, wake up!" I heard Gareth's voice whine in impatience and worry and felt his hand on my shoulder, shaking me awake. "Come on, before someone notices us up here!"

"Ge'off…" I mumble, turning my head away from him and doing the worst thing someone in my position could ever do, ever. Deftly dodging another shake to my shoulder, I rolled over.

My eyes flew open wide as I felt what I thought was the floor beneath me disappearing and I start falling through the air. In a desperate attempt to save myself, I reach quickly for something to grab on to, but my muscles were too sore to react fast enough and I barely missed the rafter I had been laying on.

"Bella!" Gareth yelled, loud enough to draw the attention of everyone in the apartment, and reached for my hand. Our fingers brush, but he can't get a hold of me because his arms are too short and I fall.

I close my eyes and grit my teeth, covering my head to do whatever I could to save myself from the impact of falling a billion feet on to a hard surface. Yeah, I'm doomed.

"Bella!" I open my eyes as I hear a different voice shout my name, a more feminine one. Given my state of mind, and the fact that I was falling to my death, I didn't bother to recognize exactly who it was. Given that there were only two other females in the apartment besides myself, it could only be one of them, anyway. Turns out it didn't matter, as I felt small arms grab around my waist, stopping my fall in a sudden jerky movement, causing me to go upwards slightly before slowly descending.

My eyes widen and I look around, studying my surroundings as the adrenaline cleared my head, unable to say anything from the shock of almost dying. First, I notice that I'm still in the air, so Gareth must have caught me. Then, I realize Gareth had rested his forehead on my back and was whispering something (that I couldn't hear) under his breath into my shirt, then I see Jasper staring wide-eyed at me, then I notice Angela staring in horrified shock, clinging to Jasper with dear life. Finally, I notice that she's not looking at _me_, but at something slightly _behind_ me.

I look behind me as we land and my mouth hangs open in shock. It's not Gareth I see holding me, but Alice in her full-fledged demon form. I stared, as she let me go, marveling at the large difference between her and Gareth.

First of all, instead of her skin being black and leathery, it was a pale milky white with a black tinge to it that was more pronounced around her eyes. She had tattoos like mine, but instead of the blue glow mine emitted, hers had the smoky shadow like in her eyes. Her eyes were the same as Gareth's, but with a small flame visible in the center of them. Her horns were long and spiraled up out of her head about a foot and a half long, maybe slightly less.

That was about it when it came to differences though, at least, that's what I thought until she put me down and I noticed her wings. They looked more like a black dragon's wings instead of a bat's like Gareth's, complete with the stark white horns protruding from the joints, but with a light coating of short fur covering them.

"What were you _thinking_!?" she sort of shout/growled, the shadow in her eyes diminishing to show a fiery red stare boring holes in my head. I flinched, feeling her angry eyes burning into the side of my face as I avoided meeting her gaze. "What were you even _doing _up there!?"

"...Sleeping?" I asked, peeking at her out of the corner of my eye, only to see her shaking in anger.

"_Sleeping!?_" she repeated in a snarl, causing me to flinch back and Angela behind us to whimper.

We both look behind us, both of us having forgotten anyone else was even in the room, let alone listening. I look back at Alice, who is still looking at Angela as if she had been caught with her hand in the cookie jar, and noticed another difference between her and Gareth. She had a tail. Not just any tail, however, but a pitch black forked tail like you'd see in an old timey cartoon. Except, you know, _black_ and covered with light fur to match her wings.

"You have a tail." I point out smartly, pointing at it with my finger.

She turned to look at me, that same look on her face, only intensified.

"Shit." she said, transforming back quickly. The back of her shirt was ripped because of her wings and hung a bit low on her frame, and when I noticed just _how_ low, I turned away, blushing.

"Wha-..." Angela said, trying to sound normal, but her voice cracked with fear. "What are you..?

* * *

Before all the dangerous theatrics happened, Angela and Jasper had just arrived back, both silent. Angela was sniffling and holding tight to Jasper's hand while he just stared silently at the floor, trying to think of what exactly he was going to do with Angela. She obviously knew more than he had originally thought, but he didn't want to overstep what she _knew_ and accidentally reveal something she _shouldn't_.

He exhaled loudly in exasperation, his free hand ruffling his hair. He was in a pickle, and he had no idea what to do. What was he thinking, asking to accompany me on my, "mission" as he called it? He didn't know, but he knew he was in over his head.

"How about… we go sit on the couch, huh?" he asked, trying to stall the situation until he could figure out what to do. Angela nodded silently, her eyes on her feet.

They sat down, Jasper looking uninterestedly at the T.V., which was still paused and now showing a screen saver. He picked up the remote from the coffee table and shut it off, turning back to Angela, clearing his throat. She still hadn't let go of his hand, and it was starting to hurt a little.

"So…" he said, breaking out in a nervous sweat. He looked around awkwardly, drying his free hand off on his pants. "We need to talk."

Angela looked up at him expectantly, waiting for him to start. However, Jasper just turned into a stuttering mess. He was not good under pressure.

"So, uh… do you… do you, uh… how much-"

"Hey, guys, where is everybody?" Alice interrupted them, walking into the room and looking peculiarly at the scene before her. From her perspective, it looked like Jasper had done something bad and made Angela cry, but was currently failing horribly in trying to comfort her. She narrowed her eyes. "Hey, what's up, you two? What's going on?"

"Alice!" Jasper cried in relief, standing up quickly to go to her. His eyes sparkled and he visibly relaxed, forgetting about Angela all together as he moved from her side.

Angela watched his reaction and her faced dropped, her eyes tearing up a little bit more as she slowly slipped her hand out of his and he ran to Alice, not noticing the change in her, at all.

"I'm so glad you're here, you gotta help me, I-"

"What did you do?" Alice asked a scowl on her face and a glare in her gaze.

"What? I didn't do-"

"Then why's she crying?" Alice crossed her arms, her glare intensifying.

"What? No, I didn't-"

"He didn't do anything, Alice." Angela said her voice soft and almost inaudible. Jasper and Alice looked at her, but she avoided their gazes by staring blankly at the T.V. screen. "I'm fine."

Alice looked at Jasper quizzically, trying to figure out what was going on. He eyed Angela before laying his hand on Alice's shoulder and motioning with his head for them to move away so they could talk without fear of her hearing.

"What's going on?" Alice asked once they were far enough away, her voice low.

"Well, Angela wanted me to take her on a date, so we went for ice cream and a movie at the mall, but while we were walking around, we ran into Emmett, and we made jokes, and he asked about Meatball, and then we heard a scream, then Angela started to cry, then Emmett ran away, then it screamed again, then we sped here, and she wouldn't stop crying, and I don't know what to ask her, and…" Jasper trailed off, breathing hard, his eyes closed. Alice stared at him, eyes wide, as he breathed in deeply and continued. "She knows something."

"'Knows something'? What do you mean? What exactly does she know?" Alice snapped out of her shock and shot her questions quickly, glancing at Angela before returning her eyes to Jasper.

"She knows… _something_ about… all _this_." Jasper waved his arms around as if indicating everything, but Alice looked at him blankly. "You know, _something_…" he leaned in to whisper in her ear, one eye peering suspiciously at Angela as if she could hear, when in fact she wasn't even trying to listen to them.

"So you don't even know what she knows?" Alice asked, looking slightly peeved and a lot put off.

"Well, that's what I was trying to do before you got here…" Jasper trailed off, blushing and mumbling under his breath. "But… You know… I didn't know how to ask…"

Alice rolled her eyes and shook her head, letting out an exasperated puff of air.

"That's easy, follow me." she said, walking meaningfully toward Angela, not even caring if Jasper followed or not. When she arrived, she sat down, looking intensely at Angela before softening her gaze and taking her hand. "Hey," she said, catching her attention. "I've gotta ask you something, do you mind?"

"No." Angela said meekly, avoiding Alice's eyes. She didn't want to hate the girl, but she obviously held Jasper's (or, _Jason's_, to her) affection, and she couldn't help feeling a little jealous.

"Would you mind telling us exactly what you know?" Alice squeezed Angela's hand encouragingly, not waiting long for an answer.

"No." she said, taking her hand from Alice's and placing it on her lap with her other one, twiddling her thumbs.

Jasper and Alice looked at each other, waiting for Angela to talk, but words were unforthcoming. Jasper cleared his throat, drawing their attention to him, and looked at Angela expectantly.

"Well?" he asked his voice impatient. Angela looked at him and sighed, seeming to reluctantly accept something.

"I know you're not Jason." she said softly, too softly for Jasper to understand what she said, but Alice, being closer, could just make it out.

"You... you do?" Alice asked, taken aback. "Since when?"

"'Since when' what?" Jasper asked, confused. "What did she say?" Alice shushed him and he huffed, annoyed. "Come on, I didn't hear her!"

"Since Bella left us alone." Angela smiled sadly, her eyes tearing up again, but nothing fell. "I-I knew he wasn't Jason… but… they just look so alike… everything except the scars, but that could have come from our accident…" she looked down at her hands, which were sitting in her lap. "I thought, if I pretended he _was_ Jason… then maybe he would… I don't know… _become_ him."

"Well, is that seriously all-"Alice was planning on finishing her question, asking if that was seriously _all_ she knew, but I decided to drop in at about that time.

"Bella!" they all looked up and stood as they heard Gareth scream my name, seeing me falling in slow motion as he grabbed for my hand and missed. They watched as I free fell through the air, certain to die when I landed, and if not, be incapacitated for a long while.

"Bella!" Alice shouted in horror, bursting into her devil form, her wings ripping through her shirt and flames encasing her hands. She jumped into the air, using her wings to propel herself towards me as she put out the flames in her hands and grabbed around my waist, shooting upwards a little before resting her forehead on my back, and starting to slowly descend, mumbling under her breath into my shirt thanks that she could catch me in time.

* * *

"Angela, you need to calm down, we're not going to hurt you." Alice said slowly, putting her hands up in a placating gesture. "We're just slightly special, that's all."

I looked warily at Angela, watching how she hid behind Jasper. She slowly peeked around his arm, her eyes wide, but scared. My eyes widened as I saw her face, she looked like she had been crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, and her cheeks were stained with salt that the dimming light from the windows easily reflected off of.

"What happened to Angela?" I asked Alice out of the corner of my mouth, not taking my worried eyes off of the girl named. "She looks like her dog died, and then she saw the dog's ghost, and instead of it being happy to see her, wanted to eat her babies."

"Well," Alice said, turning to me, her anger subsided, just a little, making way to slight annoyance that was hiding what looked like worry and relief. It made me happy that she had been worried about me, but I decided not to dwell on it in light of the current situation. "_Besides_ the fact that she just saw me _transform_ into a _giant scary beast_, we don't exactly know. That's what we were trying to figure out before being so _rudely_ interrupted."

"Hey, I can't help rolling over when I sleep." I said, crossing my arms with a huff and looking away, an angry pout on my face.

"Well, why can't you!?" Alice snapped, nearly growling. I could just feel her glare in my back, and I just "hmphed" and stomped my foot.

"Well, why can't you help hugging up on the first thing you can find when you sleep?" I retaliated, turning and sticking my tongue out to a blushing Alice. I heard Angela giggle a little and peeked at her, smiling widely when we met eyes.

"You guys seriously aren't like them…?" she asked, stepping slightly out from behind Jasper who just stood there, arms slightly out, face bewildered. She still looked a little worried, but she didn't look so scared, anymore. I guess our little argument showed that we really weren't monsters (or at least, _Alice_ wasn't) and were just the normal people she'd befriended a week ago that had happened to save her life.

"Well, I don't know who 'them' are," I said, putting my hands on my hips and smiling. "But if they hurt you at all, then, no. We are _nothing_ like them."

"Are… you sure?" Angela asked, stepping a little more out of behind Jasper.

"If we wanted to hurt you, Angela, we would have done it by now." Alice said, rolling her eyes, but offering a rue smile when Angela switched her gaze from me to her. "Don't you think?"

Angela sighed and smiled, stepping fully out from behind Jasper, who, by habit, went to grab her hand in relief, but was snubbed when she unnoticeably pulled her hand away. He didn't know why that action hurt him, but he pushed it to the back of his mind, focusing on present matters instead.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." she said, smiling. "So… what _are_ you guys, then?"

Just then, Gareth decided to drop in, startling the socks off of Angela as she squeaked and hid back behind Jasper.

"There it is!" she shouted, scared again. "It's that thing! It's come back!"

"Angela, calm down!" Jasper said as Gareth landed, turning and putting his hands on her shoulders, getting her to look at his face and pulling her out of behind him. "Look again, who does it look like?"

Angela steadily turned her head, looking warily at Gareth before squinting her eyes. After a while of studying and one goofy grin later, she dropped her mouth open in shock as her eyes widened in disbelief.

"Gareth!?" she questioned loudly, to which he replied with a giant clap that engulfed his body in flames.

When the flames subsided, Gareth stood there in all his human-looking glory, hands on his hips and chest puffed out. I found it kind of comical that his shirt had pooled around his feet since his wings were no longer keeping it on him after bursting through the back and ripping it to shreds.

"The one and only!" he shouted giddily, seeming to not notice the fact that his shirt was hung around his ankles. "You like that transformation? Been practicing it in my down time!"

"Your… shirt's fallen off." Angela said, doing a horrible job at holding in a smile and pointing towards the mutilated cloth.

Gareth looked down at it and frowned, his face falling into the saddest expression I'd ever had the displeasure of seeing on him.

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice dejected. "I didn't mean to break the shirt, but I only saw one way of getting up there and back."

"That's why I cut holes in the back of mine." I said, rolling my eyes. In my opinion, he deserved to get in trouble for not having the forethought to do the same.

"Hmph," Alice said, crossing her arms. "I just don't turn. It shows weakness that you need to rely on an enhanced state to fight."

"Wait." Angela said, shrugging out of Jasper's hold and looking at me in surprise. "You can turn into… _whatever_, too?"

"Well, not exactly…" I said before being rudely interrupted by Alice whispering rather loudly that I wished I did.

"What does she mean?" Angela asked, confused.

"Well, I don't exactly turn into… a devil." I said, rolling my hands, trying to better get out what I was trying to say.

"Wait, you guys are devils?" Angela's eyes widened and she took a half a step back.

"No! No, we're not!" I said, stepping forward quickly with my hands up slightly. "Well, I'm not-" Angela looked warily at Gareth and Alice before glancing back at me. "-but they're only half! They're special! They're human halves keep them from being evil, so they're okay!"

"Okay?" Alice echoed, indignant. "I'm not just _okay_, I'm-"

"Would you shut it?" I asked, glaring at her for the first time in a long time, if not, ever. "I'm trying to explain, here!"

Alice looked at me, bewildered, and Angela looked at me, curious.

"Then, what _are_ you?" she asked, her eyes skeptical.

"Well, I'm kinda part… angel." I said reluctantly. It was obvious in the time that I'd known her that Angela was at least a little religious, and I didn't want to win her favor by being… I guess, on the "good" side of things.

"An… angel…?" she whispered in amazement, her eyes filling with wonder. "No way… I _knew_ it! I knew you were an angel the moment I laid eyes on you when you pulled me from the river! I _saw_ you _glow_… I _knew_ it!" she stopped for a while, seemingly thinking. Alice looked sharply up at her when she heard about the glowing part, but I paid her no mind as I just started to feel embarrassed by Angela's praise. "The one thing I don't get…" she said, looking forlornly at her shoes. "Is why you would be sent to save _me_ of all people."

"What do you mean?" Jasper, ever the silent one, asked from next to her. I had forgotten he was there, even though I could clearly see him just from looking at Angela. Tunnel vision and all that. "You're not a bad person. You deserved to be saved."

Angela looked up at him, her eyes painful.

"No, Jas-" she stopped herself from calling Jasper Jason and looked up at him with pain-filled eyes. "… whoever you are. I didn't. I still don't."

**A/R: WELL! Isn't that something! Tell me what you thought of the chapter, or just plain yell at me, below!**

**No guest reviews? Well, okay, then! Be that way! *stomps away until is out of view, then runs away crying into the sunset***

**What? Sunsets are dramatic.**

**Anyway, in recap:**

**Apparently, Emmett, Meatball, and Caleb don't exist anymore! That, or the author doesn't love them.**

**Bella is Spiderman!**

**Bella is a bird!**

**Gareth is bad at playing catch!**

**Alice is good at it!**

**Angela is a scaredy-weasel!**

**Jasper is a lame-o!**

**Angela accepts everyone's differences but her own!**

**And lastly, she no longer loves Jaso-I mean, Jasper!**

**Please, feel free to review below! I know I said that twice, but Second is the best, eh?**

**I'm not going to say happy holidays (besides just then) because if you guys had a problem with Christianity, then you wouldn't be reading this, so Merry Christmas, all! Have a good one!**

**-Peace, G.C.**


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